Prompted by the need for a thank you gift, I decided to bake a cake using the fresh-picked damsons and blackberries. I used the upside down cake and claufouti as an inspiration for placing the fruits at the base of the baking pan. For the cake itself, I used the Chinese Steamed Cake recipe as a foundation. I'm still quite impressed at the lack of butter or oil in the recipe, and it seemed a great starting point for creating a healthy tasty cake. So, I took the opportunity to make my first altercations.One person had commented that the cake could be baked, although the texture was a bit too spongy and chewy; so I focused on adding more moisture as well as reducing the 6 eggs. Since I've encountered several cake recipes that used sour cream as a source of moisture and I myself have used fruit-flavored yogurt in my cheesecakes, I ventured to test the effects of fruit-flavored yogurt in the cake. I also thought adding a little oil could help with moisture. Thus, I eliminated 1 egg, replaced the water with yogurt and oil, and split the sugar between white and brown.
Thankfully, the cake didn't collapse; but the texture was not what I desired. It was quite a bit rubbery and the air bubbles weren't even. After searching through baking911.com, I learned a couple things. I think I may have overmixed when incorporating the flour. The sugar was not fully dissolved either, so I may try beating the yolks over heat to help with dissolving the sugar and increasing the volume. I'm beginning to wonder if I should switch to pastry flour to help with the tenderness, although I may try ground almonds to see its effects. Pureed squash seems like another good alternative, although it's usually a replacement for butter. Definitely lots of possibilities. Let's hope I can obtain the texture I have in my mind while keeping it healthy.
)I also learned the difference between a convection oven and the baking oven typically found in American homes where the heat is either from the bottom or top. I knew that the convection oven was the most ideal as the heat source came from both the top and bottom with a fan circulating the heat evenly. I was quite surprised to find it in typical English homes. Apparently, when using a convection oven, one should decrease the temperature and cooking time by about 10%. That would explain why the cakes I've baked so far tended to burn on top while the meats tended to be dry. I've not realized the needed drop in temperature. Eureka!
Ever since I bought the freshly ground wholemeal flour at Die Valken windmill in the Netherlands, I'd been intending to use it since the suggested best before date was October 2007. Ideas ranged from cinnamon buns to my mom's braided raisin bread to chine
Tracked: Feb 07, 12:44