Baking a Cake
Originally published at The Modern Domestic Geek. You can comment here or there.
I baked a cake today. This is a big deal, because as I think I mentioned - I’ve never made a cake from scratch before. I decided to make a cake from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and because I happened to have a nine-inch cake pan, I decided on the orange sponge cake. I read over the recipe a couple of times before starting, and did like the people on TV do. I got each ingredient in a little glass cup. I started by separating the eggs, one at a time, putting the yolks in the mixing bowl, and the whites in a cup. Glad I separated them over a different cup - because the third one - the yolk broke. And it was weird - I started a new dozen of eggs in the third and fourth eggs, and the yolk was a lot smaller. While they were separating, I zested an orange, and squeezed the juice. Measured the flour, and sifted it. This is real cake flour - new thing for me.
Then I started to beat the eggs and sugar together - and while I wasn’t sure when to know when the ribbon was formed - I figured it out. Though I wouldn’t call the yolks light yellow. But it did get lighter, and I did have a ribbon of the mixture disappear in the batter when I lifted the beater. Then I added the juice, zest, and then the flour. It was all going swimmingly.
The I did the eggwhites. Now this is old hat to me - I beat egg whites to stiff peaks on a pretty regular basis, for my special cookies, or for meringues. That went well - and then it was time to fold the whites into the cake mixture, then turn it into the pan. The batter was light and fluffy, and because to smell absolutely yummy when it started to bake. This had been easy. Why was it I hadn’t made a cake before.
Well maybe I know now. I don’t think I completely incorperated the egg whites, and parts of the cake fell. And I think I over baked it. But it came out of the pan easy enough and I cooled it - it’s gets iced tomorrow…
This was written yesterday. The cake - was an unqualified disaster. Maybe it was me - but I thought spongecake was supposed to be light and fluffy, not the texture of a hockey puck. So my first cake went into the trash before I could take a picture of it. Of course, now - I have not cake for dinner tonight.
I spent the rest of the night when I wasn’t going out for sushi and watching Dollhouse - playing WoW. I’m behind on my cookie baking, but hey - I got my shaman to level 18, and my hunter to level 42. And it was the most productive thing that happened yesterday.