Baking (rec.food.baking) For bakers, would-be bakers, and fans and consumers of breads, pastries, cakes, pies, cookies, crackers, bagels, and other items commonly found in a bakery. Includes all methods of preparation, both conventional and not.

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Jayne Doe
 
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Default Cake texture help

I recently made a cake from a pudding-type box mix. It smelled
terrific, but it had no body to it. It fell apart as I was frosting
the bottom layer and would certainly never made it throught the
ganache I prepared for the top.
Any suggestions on how to amend a box mix to give the cake more
density without going as far as pound cake?
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Vox Humana
 
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Default Cake texture help


"Jayne Doe" > wrote in message
om...
> I recently made a cake from a pudding-type box mix. It smelled
> terrific, but it had no body to it. It fell apart as I was frosting
> the bottom layer and would certainly never made it throught the
> ganache I prepared for the top.
> Any suggestions on how to amend a box mix to give the cake more
> density without going as far as pound cake?


Cake mixes are designed to be nearly indestructible. Maybe you
inadvertently mis-measured something. What brand of cake mix did you use?
I find that cakes from mixers lack the density of home made cakes. I would
recommend just making a cake from scratch from a reliable source like The
Cake Bible.


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Mark Floerke
 
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Default Cake texture help

Reading the ingredient declaration will give you a lot of information on
what you are getting in to before you buy it. If starch or modified starch
is high on the list, it might be a bit gummy in texture and lack strength.
Things like wheat flour, whey, barely flour, soy flour, milk powder, egg
albumen all add strength.
Just add water mixes usually have powdered egg already in the mix. Adding
an egg will give some strength but may also increase aeration in mixing and
emulsifying beyond the capacity of the batter structure to maintain the gas
expansion. i.e. the cake could collapse in the oven if over mixed.
The old adage of you get what you pay for usually applies as well.

Mr. Pastry

"Roy Basan" > wrote in message
om...
> (Jayne Doe) wrote in message

. com>...
> > I recently made a cake from a pudding-type box mix. It smelled
> > terrific, but it had no body to it. It fell apart as I was frosting
> > the bottom layer and would certainly never made it throught the
> > ganache I prepared for the top.
> > Any suggestions on how to amend a box mix to give the cake more
> > density without going as far as pound cake?

>
> They are usually weak bodied cakes due to high moisture content.
> That is why I usually add more eggs to the recipe but reduced the
> water so that your cake will be stable.
> In that way I was able to produce a cake that is stable to covering
> with icing.
> Some boxed cakes used only 2 eggs and a cup or more of water.
> If you increased the level to 3 eggs but reduced the water
> correspondingly to accomodate the moisture in eggs the cakes will come
> out stable.
> Another peculiarity is some of this cakes need add water only.
> If that is what you have adding eggs and oil will improve the cake
> structure and strength.
> Roy



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Roy Basan
 
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Default Cake texture help

"Mark Floerke" > wrote in message >...
> Reading the ingredient declaration will give you a lot >of information on
>what you are getting in to before you buy it. If >starch or modified

starch
>is high on the list, it might be a bit gummy in texture >and lack

strength.

It is already satisfactory from the perspective of a pastry
cook../cake baker. But....
It is not enough from the point of a premix formulator;it is only a
guide what you can possilby do with that cake and how you can improve
its as itself or in the make up of that premix in your target
customers kitchen.

>Things like wheat flour, whey, barely flour, soy >flour, milk powder,

egg
>albumen all add strength.


From my experience in formulating this institutional cake mixes, the
various components as listed in the ingredient declaration are
balanced with respect to the other components and the sum of its
inteaction will even result in synergism and brings benefit to the
end product.You do not add an ingredient to the formula if you do not
antcipate its functionality what ever benefits and disadvantage it can
bring to the cake it is to counteracted by other ingredients which in
the end will result in quality improvement.
A normal or basic cake mix ( example the white cake mix)is dry eating
but stable to decorating.But the customer needs stability and more
moistness.
The cake mix formulator will think basically first like these:He
start with the basic cake mix recipe and analyse the effect of its
listed components.He may conceive the recipe in his mind or in his PC
and check the resulting possible idea by test baking.
If he add modified starch to the mix it will increase the amount of
moisture in the cake due to the absorptive properties of this starch
and therefore will contribute to the weakening and lessening of the
cake volume.Therefore he had to conteract that by increasing the
toughener i.e the albumen , milk solids or both but that will lead to
drier cake.Then he compensate that by adding more shortening. But that
will lead to a more tender cake and the cake will be greasy. At this
point he will have to find look or shortening with improve
perrformance due to the presence of more emulsifiers but he will
considerr the level of emulsifier blends in the basic recipe and
ponder how it can be improved so that it can perform in harmony with
the recipe. He recognize that by Adding these ingredients will affect
the cake volume, crumb structure and stability. AS the cakes will
indeed aerate well but collapse during baking.It Means to the
formulator leavening failure. The baking powder is fast acting. He
will Choose a slow reacting leavener but with slight trace of fsst
leavening acid.Anticipating that these leavening acids combination
will release its total acidity at the critical point in the baking
process ensuring that the batter has a sustained CO2 gas release in
addition to the vapor pressure of the steam from the batter before the
cake structure is hardened by the oven heat. Here leavening acid
reaction will be synchronisation with the batter expansion and
flow during the baking process. So that the cake will have a nice
contour, even crumb grain and desired stability..
If his hypothesis and comes out well in the baking test then he will
conduct further trials to get the best fit or optimize the cake
formulaiton.
Therefore in the end the cake formula is like a symphony orchestra
where the recipe formulator will have to ‘wave his baton to the
components' in such a way that there is a right proportion of
ingredient interaction in order to obtain the best cake .
But with all the wizardry in formulation there is a always limits
what a cake mix can achieve.So the formulator will establish baking
tolerance before he finalise his decision of his formulae. And use
this as the baiis for cake batter preparation recipe.But in the field
problems do still arise and the cake mix is further tweaked by the
consumer.
Many of this moist cake mixes are already complete and you just have
to add water,mix and bake and you have a cake.
You have all the ingredients there ,sugar,flour, dried egg solids,
milks solids , baking powder,highly emulsified cake shortening ,
vegatahle gums ,modified starches, milk solids,salt .In many cases,
the cake made from this types of mix (with water only added )is
fragile if additional topping is put in as decoration.
Then that is where the bakers will come in and modify the recipe just
consdering the fact that if he add more eggs the cake will be drier
therefore se should incorporate salsd oil to balance the interaction
between the toughener (ggs) and the tenderizer( salad oil).
So to make the cake more stable in (addition to the wate)r he had to
blend it a little amount of eggs and salad oil.
>Just add water mixes usually have powdered egg already >in the mix.

Adding
>an egg will give some strength but may also increase >aeration in

mixing and
>emulsifying beyond the capacity of the batter >structure to maintain

the gas
>expansion. i.e. the cake could collapse in the oven >if over mixed.
>The old adage of you get what you pay for usually >applies as well.


I disagree with this principle.It has nothing to do with the
fortification of the egg content that it will destroy the cake
performance as long as you maintain ingredient balance.That is the
common perception of pastry cooks and cake bakers who do not
understand the mystery and science of cake mix formulation.
I have formulated cake mixes in this fashion and had tested
extensively other similar cake mixes( for example) the General Mils
Gold medal institutional white cake mix which you can make a cake in
two ways:
First there is the dump the mix into the bowl and pour water in two
stages vhile mixing in two to three stage as well.The cake is
satsifactory looking but weak and slightly gummy.The batter density or
specific gravity here is in the range of 0.65-0.75. gram/cc.If you
mix it longer the batter density goes down to 0.5 range and the cake
rise well but collapse in the later baking stage;meaning this add
water only cakes lacks mixing tolerance. In contrast: in the
Second way : there is a recipe for making decorated cakes that
requires the addition of eggs and vegatable oil. (This was mentioed
earleir) The cake that results from it is stable and strong but still
moist and has better sensory quality.The observed batter density here
is o.75-0.85 meaning it's a heavier cake than the first one. And
another peculiarity is its slightly stable to overmixing as the
batter spcific gravity does not go down below the 0.70 gram per cc.
My cake mix follow the same peculiarity it produces the lightest
batter with add water only but batter gravity goes down in the second
process but improves the cake stablity and cake volume.Scoring the
cake favors the quality of the second method
The second method was a recommendation from the customer as the
result of direct observation by the bakers who has to contend with
weak cakes using the add water only.
The institutional cake mix manufacturer had to go back to the drawing
board and see if there is a way to make a better cake that will
satisfy the customers requirements.
By basing from this experience with the same pecuiiarities noted the
modification of the make up recipe is the option that any troubled
home baker have to apply also to get the stable cake he want from the
existing cake mix in his stock.
In the end if faced with the problem like weak cake structure the
modification of the make up recipe could do wonders to an other wise
(from the point of the customer) as an inferior cake that is unfit for
decorating.
In this case of the original poster in this thread; if the cake mix
recommendation is only two eggs adding another egg can improve the
strength of the cake
Or for that reeaon alone even additional egg white will do the job
satisfctorily while reducing the water to compensate for the moisture
in the increased egg.
But the final decison will come from the result in the posters baking
test what is best for his particular premix .
Roy


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cynthia mason
 
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Default Cake texture help

Check out the Cake Mix Doctor website. There is also a book or two by
her. It tells you how to take a cake and doctor it up. Most are very
delicious.

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