CONCEPT 47: REVERSE CREAM FOR DELICATE CAKES Flashcards
While creaming butter and sugar is the first step in most cake recipes, is it the only option?
No, another technique has become popular: reverse creaming.
Why is reverse creaming Test Kitchen’s choice when making classic yellow layer cake and many other kinds of holiday cookies?
Because it minimizes rise and yields cakes and cookies with flat tops that are perfect for decorating.
Why is reverse creaming ok for layer cakes but not Bundt and pound cakes?
Layer cakes always contain at least one leavener so proper rise isn’t an issue. But most of the time you don’t want cake layer to rise all that much since they contain, well, layers sandwiched by thick coats of frosting.
What happens when you use creaming method with a layer cake?
It can produce a cake that’s too tall with a crumb that’s too coarse and open to support the layers of a finished cake.
Reverse creaming is also called what?
The “two-stage method.”
Who invented the “two-stage method?”
General Mills and Pillsbury in the 1940s and later popularized by Rose Levy Beranbaum in her seminal book The Cake Bible, publish in 1988. The advent of chlorinated cake flour and modern shortening made this possible.
Can soft, low-protein flour absorb as much liquid as high-protein flour?
No, but low-protein flour that has been bleached with chlorine can hold more liquid.
What is essential for the success of a “two-stage method?” Explain.
A bleached cake flour because it can hold more water, which is necessary when the weight of the sugar exceeds the weight of the flour.
Why is the “two-stage method” also known has the “high-ratio method?”
The high ratio of liquid to flour.
The “high-ratio method” produces what final result?
A more velvety, tender crumb compared with other methods of mixing.
Describe the steps of a two-stage method?
Flour, sugar, baking powder and salt (dry ingredients) are combined in the mixing bowl and then softened butter is beaten into the dry ingredient, one piece at a time, before the milk and eggs are added in two batches (hence “two-stage” part of the name).
What is the key element of revers creaming?
The fat in the softened butter (which should be around 68 degrees) coats the flour and therefore minimizes the development of gluten that begins when the liquid is added. But just as important, the softened butter contains fewer fat crystals so less air is retained within the batter.
Test Kitchen’s feeling on the “two-stage method.”
Adding the eggs and milk in two batches isn’t always necessary; they like the term “reverse creaming” for that reason.
Because the two stage method doesn’t highly aerate the butter, the cake layers end up not quite as tall. Perfect for what?
Layers of frosting!
How does the two stage method reduce the risk of tough cake?
Because the development of gluten is minimized from the onset, the cakes end up with a crumb that is more delicate and fine, almost velvety smooth and tender.
Why is it easier to create gluten when creaming method is used?
Flour and milk are added alternately in small batches at the end. The tendency there is to over beat the batter in order to get it fully incorporated.
Don’t restrict reverse creaming simply to layer cakes. What else can this method be used on?
Crumb cakes, which need the support of butter crumbs; cupcakes, which can stand up to a thick filling of pastry cream; and sugar cookies that are glazed.
TEST KITCHEN: LAYERS CAKES MADE WITH CREAMING AND REVERSE CREAMING.
They created two very different products. The cakes that were creamed were springy with an open, coarse crumb, while-reverse creaming baked up extremely tender with a fine crumb and soft, cottony interior.
Go to method when tenderness is priority.
Reverse creaming.
