Who doesn’t like cake?
The science behind cupcakes is air.
I know there was likely a note of sarcasm in her voice when Mary Antoinette suggested that everyone should eat cake. But it seems that we have certainly taken her advice to heart.
In addition to the completely obvious one – birthdays, that is, it’s fair to say that celebrate just about every major life event with a cake.
Weddings. Anniversaries. Baptisms. Bat and Bar Mitzvahs. Graduations. New jobs. Retirements.
“And as soon as everyone you know realizes how you are now making your living, they will call you and ask you to bake that cake,” said our substitute Chef one day last week. That was the opener for his lecture on why we needed to understand the scientific concepts behind turning fat, eggs, flour, flavorings and garnishes into a creation worthy of whatever the special event warrants.
“I am not saying that you can’t master the technique. It’s a self-correcting process. If you make a mistake, you change something the next time, it gets better,” said Chef.
“But the science just can’t be ignored because it directly affects the taste of the final product.”
Making air and trapping it appropriately inside the other ingredients in the mix is the nucleus of the cake-making process. That particular day we were working on high-fat cake (well, cupcakes, anyway) formulas using the creaming method (aka the “conventional method”) where you first use a paddle attachment to a Kitchenaid mixer to cream the butter and the sugar together for 7 to 10 minutes on a medium speed. The science behind this step is that the paddle attachment running at a medium speed for a long period of time creates an even air cell structure in the mixture.
Then the eggs go in, one at a time so as not to tax the even cell structure. Then you alternate adding the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients in increments, mixing the batter after each addition until each addition is incorporated. The science behind this pattern is that the batter may not be able to absorb all of the liquid unless the flour is present.
Now, scientifically, butter adds flavor to a cake that just can’t be matched by shortening. But the tradeoff for the taste is that butter cakes made solely by the creaming mixture have a coarser, more tough crumb.
So we folded in some meringue – more air will make it more tender.
“Ten percent of baking a good cake is talent, and the rest is hard work and paying attention to detail,” said Chef.
And then there, of course, the simple fact that anything can taste good if it is covered in butter cream frosting.
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