All Cakes Considered - Melissa Gray [4]
Most cookbooks are set up so that you can skip around, making the lamb shanks dish on page 89 one day and perfecting that cranberry gelatin salad on page 23 the next day. All Cakes Considered is different. Oh, if you collect baking books and already know all the techniques and tips included here, you have my blessing—skip around all you like. But if you’re new to baking, follow this book from start to finish. Begin with the teaching recipe that follows (The ManCatcher—Sour Cream Pound Cake, page 17), and continue with Chapter 1, where the instructions are still spelled out in detail. You’ll move gradually to the more challenging fancy-pants cakes I have in my repertoire, including Martha Washington’s Great Cake (page 129).
I’ve set it up this way to help you learn faster than I did when I was skipping around baking books, trying things too advanced for my skill level and getting a wee bit perturbed. See? I’m looking out for ya!
You’ll need some Equipment
We’ve advanced greatly since the Neanderthals, so you’ll need some tools: measuring cups and spoons, a good sturdy hand whisk, plus a stand mixer with beaters and a whisk attachment. I recommend an extra mixing bowl, and smaller, microwave-safe prep bowls. A hand mixer is also a good tool to have. You’ll need at least two good rubber spatulas, a 10-inch tube pan, and two 9-inch flat round pans or three 8-inch pans for layer cakes. You’ll need some long toothpicks or wooden skewers for testing whether the cake is done, and a good wire rack for cooling. You’ll want to buy some baking spray to grease your pans and parchment paper, too: both are gifts of the gods.
We’ll dish in detail about ingredients after your first easy adventure in baking. So, thusly armed, away we go, marching on to page 17!
The Man Catcher—Sour Cream Pound Cake
Your Introduction to Cake Baking
In The 1950S, My Great-Uncle Presented My Grandmother With A Twelve-Sided Tube Pan. For As Long As I Can Remember, That Was The Shape Of Her Sour Cream Pound Cake. She’d Bake It Long Enough To Produce a Medium-Brown Crust. The Inside Was Always Bright Yellow, Springy, and Moist.
I call this cake the Man Catcher because, really, no man can resist it. Oh, he might be able to resist YOU, but not this cake: it’s really good, but it’s no Love Potion No. 9. There are, however, seven secrets to creating the Man Catcher: Measuring, Creaming, Beating, Beating, Beating, Greasing, and No Peeking.
Sounds kind of sexy, I know, but it’s still not going to guarantee you a love life. It will, however, provide you with an excellent introduction to cake baking.
* * *
YOU’LL NEED
A 10-inch tube pan
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
5 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon orange extract
In general, the quality of your cake depends on the quality of your ingredients, your mixing technique, and the right length of time in the oven. So, before we get down to setting the bait to catch our man, let’s internalize a couple of rules. The FIRST and most important of all is this:
One
Always Read Your Recipe Before You Begin.
Heck, read it BEFORE you go to the grocery store for your ingredients. Why? I’ll tell you why: You need to make your list o’ things to get, AND you need to go over your list o’ what you already got. Inventory yourself: Do you have salted butter or unsalted? You want unsalted. And if you have it, how old is it? Unless it’s frozen, it won’t last as long in the refrigerator as you might expect. Nor do eggs. And what size eggs are those, anyway? They should be large. Forgot to pick up enough sugar? Don’t even think you can substitute confectioners’ sugar. And that flour you have smartly stored in the refrigerator? If it’s self-rising and you use it for this cake, oh, expect some problems. And speaking of problems, lurking in your pantry is a tin of baking powder from two years ago—roughly the last time you tried making a cake. It