All Cakes Considered - Melissa Gray [61]
Which is why I’ve quit aiming for equality. Each cake layer is going to have a slight dome shape to it anyway. This is why I have a long bread knife: to even up the layers.
11. Place the pans on the same rack toward the center of the oven, but don’t let them touch.
OK. This part drives me catnip crazy, too. As you know, I have a ridiculously small oven: there is no room for two 9-inch pans on one rack. BUT putting them on separate racks isn’t ideal: they’re not going to bake well if one is below the other. So I use two 8-inch pans on one rack together and plan on a 2- or 4-layer cake.
12. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan. When you see this, gently pull the rack out of the oven partway and test the cake with a toothpick or skewer. When it comes out clean, remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes in the pans. While the layers are baking or cooling …
TO MAKE THE FROSTING
13. Fit the mixer with clean beaters or a paddle. Melt the butter in the microwave or in a saucepan over low heat. Pour the butter into the mixing bowl and add the cocoa. Mix on medium-low speed until smooth. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar, alternating with the milk. Mix until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and mix until incorporated. Set aside.
TO FINISH THE CAKE
14. Unmold the cake layers.
NEW TECHNIQUE
UNMOLDING AND DIVIDING THE LAYERS
Before unmolding the cakes, get a sheet of parchment paper and a plate, then take a look at the tops of your cakes. One is going to look slightly more even than the other. That’s the one you want for the top layer, the crown.
Place the parchment over that cake pan, put the plate over the cake pan, then flip. Remove the pan and peel off the old parchment paper that once lined the cake pan. Put your plate upside down on the bottom of the flipped cake, then flip again. Remove the plate and the fresh parchment paper. Your cake crown will now be right side up.
For the second layer, put the plate upside down on top of the cake pan and flip. Remove the old parchment paper. Allow both layers to cool completely.
Now, you could have a cake with just 2 or 3 fat layers, and that would be fine. But if you love frosting (like my Aunt Di did), you’ll want to have more layers. The way to do that is to cut each layer in half horizontally (Quick! Do the math!) Yes, that’s 4 or 6 layers. Aunt Di usually had anywhere from 5 to 8, depending on how things went the week before Christmas. She often doubled the recipe.
There are a number of techniques for dividing your layers.
OLD SCHOOL: Using your plastic ruler, measure the height of each layer and figure out where the middle is. So if your layer is 1½ inches tall, the midpoint would be ¾ inch from the bottom or top. Then, imagine the cake is your head and you’re sticking your index fingers in your ears, and stick two toothpicks into opposite sides of the cake at the midpoint. Now pretend that cake layer is a clock, with those two toothpicks at 12 and 6 o’clock. Put toothpicks at 2, 4, 8, and 10 o’clock. And now, using the toothpicks as guides, use a large bread knife to divide your layer in half, gently sawing back and forth until you’ve divided the layer in half.
NEW SCHOOL: Determine the midpoint of each layer as described above. Then adjust your Wilton cake cutter to the appropriate measurement. Steady the cake with one hand and, with the cake cutter in the other, use a gentle back-’n’-forth sawing motion to divide the layer. Depending on how tender your cake crumb is, you might have to start the dividing cut with a bread knife before switching to the cake cutter. Be gentle when finishing the cut, too; you don’t want a chunk of cake to come off the back end.
Now, there’s the DENTAL SCHOOL method involving dental floss, but I’ve never mastered it. Do like the NPR staff do and Google if you’re curious. But my money’s on the Wilton cake cutter.
After dividing your layers, use a bread knife and another big knife (a cleaver works well) to lift and transport the top half of the layer to a rack or