All Cakes Considered - Melissa Gray [11]
Self-rising flour is a flour to avoid unless a recipe specifically calls for it. It’s enriched bleached soft wheat flour with leavening and salt added, and is great for biscuits and quick breads. Its rising power can weaken within 6 months, though, so it’s an ingredient with an expiration date. If a recipe calls for self-rising flour and you don’t have it, just add 1½ teaspoons of baking powder and ½ teaspoon of salt for every cup of flour and you should be fine.
Cake flour is made from bleached soft wheat and has the lowest amount of protein—about 4 percent. It absorbs less moisture than other flours, and produces a light, delicate crumb. Generally, it’s sold in two-pound boxes. Be sure you don’t buy self-rising cake flour in its place.
There are also whole wheat or graham flour and stone-ground whole wheat flour, which are made by milling hard wheat from the entire wheat kernel, shell and all. They’re very nutritious compared to white flour; they have a higher protein content, anywhere from 12 to 15 percent, and are full of flavor
If you decide to fiddle around with a recipe to create a “healthier” cake by substituting wheat flour, realize two things: (1) you’re going to drastically alter the taste of your recipe, as wheat flours tend to have a nutty flavor; and (2) you’re going to have one heavy cake. Don’t replace more than half of your white flour with whole wheat, and be choosey about which recipes you want to try this with (spice cakes, for instance, can work, but not delicate party cakes).
Whole wheat flour can go rancid quickly. If you’re not using it within a week, store it in the fridge. It will last up to 3 months there and up to 1 year in the freezer. Just make sure you bring it to room temperature before using it.
You can keep white flours at room temperature for as long as 6 months if they’re stored in airtight containers. They’ll keep at least 6 months in the refrigerator and 2 years in the freezer. Again, make sure you bring them to room temperature before using.
Sweeteners
Sugar is made from sugarcane or sugar beets. It not only sweetens your cake but also helps keep it moist, brings air into the batter, stabilizes egg whites, and turns your cake crust all pretty and brown. You can also use sugar to finish or decorate your cake. Stored in an airtight container, sugar has a long self life, but you should always check it for lumps or (ewww!) bugs.
Granulated sugar is also known as table sugar, fine sugar, or simply “sugar.” This is usually what you buy when you pick up those one-, two-, five-, or ten-pound bags. It is economical and perfectly good for most cake recipes. Note: In this book, when “sugar” appears in the list of ingredients, it means granulated sugar.
Superfine sugar is more finely granulated. It dissolves very easily, which makes it perfect for mixing with egg whites. It’s interchangeable with granulated sugar. It’s also more expensive and is typically sold in one- or two-pound boxes. To make your own, you can always put your regular granulated sugar in a food processor and pulse for a minute or two if you need smaller granules or just want the joy of using your food processor.
Confectioners’ sugar is also known as powdered sugar or 10-X sugar. It is not generally used in standard cake batters as it’s fine and soft and does not aerate as well as granulated or superfine. It is, however, perfect for icings and frostings because it dissolves so well.
Sanding sugar and coarse sugar have large granules and are sprinkled over baked goods as decoration. Sanding sugar has larger crystals than coarse sugar (which has larger crystals than granulated sugar). You can get sanding and coarse sugars in different colors, too, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Brown sugar is basically granulated white sugar with the molasses added back in. Molasses is a by-product of the refining process. It’s what’s left over from the boiled juice