Many novice home-made confectioners are timid, starting for the first time on their own to prepare cakes for a cake.
Knowing the basic subtleties of the process, you can easily cope with self-doubt and feel like an experienced pastry chef.
Simple cake layers for cake - basic technological principles
Due to the variety of dough for the base of the cakes, the most popular and favorite dessert has many options. Having mastered the technique of preparing the basic types of dough for cakes, it is possible not only to easily prepare a cake according to any recipe, but also, using various combinations of cakes and creams, to come up with your own cake recipe: most of the most popular cakes were invented by chance.
For cakes, the following basic types of dough are most often used:
Sandy;
Puff;
Biscuit and other types of bulk dough;
Almond;
Airy
There are also special recipes for pastry dough cakes, but they are a variation of the above. If we talk about the simplicity in the preparation of the dough, then in the technology of each type of dough has its own nuances. It is conditionally possible to consider puff pastry and shortcrust dough easier to prepare: these types require only thorough mixing, the ability to work with a rolling pin. That is, it takes time and effort to make puff pastry or sand cakes in the home kitchen, but the end result is always successful, even for those who first made shortbread or puff pastry cakes, since the ingredients almost completely eliminate errors - you just need to follow accuracy recipes.
The situation is different with the preparation of biscuit, air and almond (nut dough), where the quality depends not only on the ingredients, but also on the accuracy of the technological process, from the initial stage to the final stage of preparation. But with the acquisition of experience in the preparation of these types of dough, the speed and ease of the process become apparent.
In the end, the first two types of dough are similar in processing technology with the dough for ravioli, which every hostess can handle, so we’ll take a closer look at the secrets of biscuit, air and almond cakes.
Cake making for cake - simple sponge cake recipes
The easiest and fastest in home cooking type of dough - sponge cake. Biscuit dough is prepared in several ways. They are distinguished by the composition of the ingredients for biscuit dough:
• The main sponge dough for cakes includes flour, sugar, eggs;
• A portion of the flour (30%) in making biscuit, simple cake cakes is sometimes replaced with starch or cocoa, depending on the recipe;
• For making biscuit cake dough for the cake, butter is added to the ingredients listed above, but this reduces the number of eggs by 20%;
By the way of cooking:
• The cold method (boucher) is the most convenient for home baking. For this method, use cooled eggs. In this case, proteins are better initially separated from yolks, since it is proteins that are better whipped in the cooled state. Beat the prepared ingredients until the volume increases 2.5-3 times. The sifted flour is introduced into the beaten egg mass, but the dough is mixed with a spatula or a hand whisk, trying to create a uniform texture without destroying the air bubbles, after which the dough is immediately transferred to the form and baked in a preheated oven.
• For cooking heated sponge dough, whole eggs are combined with sugar, whipping them in a water bath (at home), and after cooling they inject flour and immediately bake.
In addition to the listed products, aromatic additives are used in the preparation of biscuit dough: fruit and spirit essences, vanilla, citrus peel.
Biscuit dough increases in volume when whisking due to air bubbles retained by egg whites or dairy products. When baking, the porosity of the dough increases due to the heating of the air, which breaks the proteins and tends to reach the surface, further increasing the volume of the cake.
To biscuit dough always turned out lush and porous need:
• To strictly observe the equal proportion of dry (flour, sugar, cocoa, starch) and wet proportions (eggs, water, milk, sour cream, butter);
• Be sure to use only the freshest eggs and dairy products for baking biscuit cakes, and be sure to sift flour, starch, cocoa; • Try not to knock on the table and not to create mechanical vibrations when whisking the biscuit, as the air bubbles quickly evaporate and the dough settles;
• Similarly, when baking, you cannot create mechanical vibrations of the cooker, open the oven until the dough has a stable structure;
• Biscuit readiness is checked with a long wooden stick, which is pierced with the cake only after its surface is browned enough;
• After baking, do not take the biscuit dough out of the mold until it has cooled completely. Otherwise, the cake will settle.
• The cooled cakes are cut, soaked with syrup and collected cake, promazyvaya them with cream.
Biscuit - a universal type of dough, which goes well with any kind of cream. If you practice well, a cake on a biscuit basis is the fastest way to prepare homemade pastries.
Simple cake cakes for the airy cake
Air dough differs from biscuit in composition and has only one, the only correct method of cooking, requiring strict adherence to the technology of mechanical and heat treatment.
The composition of the air dough includes egg white and sugar, which, by the way, is better to replace with sifted icing to reduce the time of beating and improve the quality of the dough. The ratio of powder and protein should be the same in order to preserve the fluffy and stable structure of the whipped proteins.
• To make an airy dough, whites are gently separated from the yolks and always cooled.
• Whipping utensils should be clean: dry and not contain even the slightest trace of fat on the inner surface in order to achieve an increase in protein volume of 5-7 times.
• At the end of driving in proteins, citric acid (10% solution) or lemon juice is added for the strength of the protein foam.
• Powder is added to whipped whites, sifting in small pieces.
• Protein dough, like other types of cake layers for a cake, is flavored, depending on the recipe, with flavors, sometimes added with food coloring or fruit juices to decorate the confection.
• Air dough is baked in forms lined with parchment sheets soaked in cooking oil. Baking temperature should be low (100 ° C), baking time - 1.5-2 hours. In the baking process it is impossible to open the oven so that the air mass does not settle due to a sudden change in temperature. Until complete cooling, the airy dough is also not removed from the oven. • Paper can be easily separated from the cake after cooling, if you put a damp napkin under it for a couple of minutes.
Airy dough has a dry, light and brittle texture. Therefore, it is mainly chosen cream or butter cream, cream of condensed milk, with or without the addition of nuts. This combination is perfect not only in terms of technological parameters, but also to taste.
Cake Cakes - A Simple Almond Recipe
Unlike air dough, a mixture of flour and peeled nut crumb is used to make almond or nutcakes for a cake in the following ratio:
Egg whites 25%
Sugar 40%
Flour 7%
Nut flour 28%
Further preparation of almond dough continues in the following sequence:
• Peeled and roasted nuts are crushed, passing through a meat grinder twice: first - through a large grid, and then using a grid with smaller holes. In this case, it is not recommended to use a blender for grinding nuts: the nut mass during instant grinding produces a large amount of fat, becomes viscous and degrades the quality of the almond dough. The viscosity of the nuts should appear only in the baked semi-finished product.
• Ground nuts combine with sugar and add? parts of total proteins. Nut powder is not used. The resulting mixture is again passed through a meat grinder twice, and then heated to 50 ° C. At home, it is convenient to heat the dough to a pair to avoid burning the mass.
• After the mass has cooled, the remaining proteins and flour are added.
Nut dough can also be cooked in a cold way (without heating). To do this, chilled proteins are whipped with powder, and the flour is combined with ground nuts and injected in pieces in the fluffy protein mass, as well as in a biscuit. Nut dough must be baked in a form lined with oiled parchment. Baking temperature - 150-160 ° C; Duration - 35-40 minutes. Ready-made cakes are left in the oven to cool completely, and to prevent condensation and unnecessary moistening of the cake, the door is slightly opened.
Cakes for cake - a simple recipe for filling dough
Recently, homemade pastry cakes are becoming popular for home-made pastry cakes. In addition to sugar, eggs and flour in the basis for cakes according to special recipes used baking powder, dairy products. A variety of recipes and taste is achieved with dried fruits, nuts, candied fruits, zest of citrus fruits or fruit juices, poppy seeds, bird cherries.
Since such a dough is, like a sponge cake, a type of filling dough, the cake is baked for pancake dough cake, both in the oven (thicker dough) and in the pan (thinner dough), dividing its parts by the number of cakes. Pancake dough should have a loose and sufficiently wet consistency. Impregnation for this type of cake is not used.
1. Recipe biscuit cake (cold method)
Ingredients:
Powder 370 g
Flour 375 g
Eggs 16 pcs.
Vanillin 15g
For impregnation:
Dessert Wine 150 ml
Vanilla essence 5 ml
Yield: 1.15 kg
Cooking process:
Sift flour and powder separately. Beat the cooled eggs with the powder in the mixer bowl, until the increase in 3 times. Add flour, one spoonful, mix gently and pour the dough into a greased form. Immediately send in the oven, preheated to 200oS. After half an hour, check readiness. Leave the cake in shape until cool. After lay on the grid and cut in half horizontally. Saturate with wine mixed with vanilla essence. After 6 hours, collect the cake, smearing the cooked cream.
2. Recipe oil biscuit cake
Ingredients:
Oil 240 g
Yolks 10 pcs.
Powder 370 g
Protein 10 pcs.
Flour 375 g
Essence 10 ml
Output 1.0 kg
Cooking Technology:
Beat the butter and powder until white, add to the mass of the yolks one by one, without stopping the beating. Separately, whip up proteins to a stable foam and combine both masses. Add gradually sifted flour. Bake as described in the recipe above.
3. Cake with cocoa and cherry
Ingredients:
Cocoa (100%) 75 g
Starch 70 g
Flour 230 g
Eggs 8 pcs.
Pitted Cherry 280 g
Vanillin 5g
Powder 370 g
For impregnation:
Cherry syrup 150 ml
Cognac 50 ml
Sugar 100 g Preparation:
Combine the sifted flour, starch and cocoa powder. Add vanillin crystal powder to the dry mix. Mince the cherry through a meat grinder, setting a large grate. Flip through a sieve to strain the juice. From juice and sugar, prepare a syrup for impregnation, add brandy to it.
Beat the eggs with the powder, add a dry mixture and chopped cherries to them. Bake 40 minutes at 200 ° C. Next biscuit is prepared as described in the recipe number 1.
4. Nutty Cakes for Cake - Simple Recipe
Ingredients:
Nuts, ground 295 g
Flour 80 g
Proteins 235 g (5 pcs.)
Sugar 590 g
Yield: 1000 g
Cooking (cold method):
Kernels of any nuts are suitable for nut dough, unless it is in the presence of almonds. Neutral taste has roasted peanuts and cashews. To create the characteristic almond flavor, use the essence by adding it to the whipped whites. Whip them with sugar. Add crushed nuts to the protein mass, and then - flour.
Divide the dough into equal parts, according to the number of cakes. Bake on a baking tray lined with parchment. Grease a sheet of paper with oil. After baking and cooling, the nut cakes are kept for at least 6 hours at room temperature and low humidity in the room.
5. Air cake cakes - simple recipe with lemon
Ingredients:
Protein, egg 10 pcs. (300 g)
Lemon zest 60 g
Powder 900 g
Juice, lemon 100 ml
Saffron 2 g
Vanilla essence 10 mg
Preparation:
Cool the whites and whisk in a clean and dry blender bowl, adding lemon juice, zest, essence and sifted powder. Transfer the protein mass onto a sheet lined with oiled parchment, dry in the oven at 100 ° C.
From the remaining egg yolks, prepare the custard and collect the cake from the airy cakes.
6. Simple cake cakes for kefir
Ingredients:
Food Soda 25 g
Vinegar 50 ml
Kefir 220 g
Eggs 4 pcs. (180g)
Flour 450g
Starch 75 g
Vanilla (powder) 6 g
Sugar 190 g
Cognac (or fruit liqueur) 80 ml
Yield: 1.1 kg
Preparation:
Beat eggs with sugar, add kefir of any fat content. You can use sour cream. Soda quench vinegar, add to the whipped mixture. Sift flour and starch. Add vanillin to the dry mix and brandy or liqueur to the liquid. Add flour to the batter in parts and mix with a spatula. Soak the dough for half an hour so that the gluten is wet and swollen. You can bake cakes in the oven or in a pan, pouring the dough into a greased form, a layer of 0.3-0.5 cm.
Ready-made cakes are cooled and put together, lubricating with custard and sprinkling each layer with nut crumb.
Simple cake cakes - tips and tricks
Small biscuit products bake for 8-10 minutes at a lower temperature. Also reduce the baking time for piece products from the air and nut dough.
Biscuit cake intended for the manufacture of roll baked on parchment, cooled, impregnated with syrup, covered with a layer of cream, and then rolled up, gradually separating the paper. Roll laid seam down, kept 5-6 hours in the paper, then proceed to decorate the top.
The dough with the addition of soda for a long time can not interfere, because it quickly evaporate bubbles of carbon dioxide.
A well-whipped protein mass has small bubbles and does not settle during kneading.
It is better to add flour to the beaten eggs, using not a spoon, but a sieve, and sift it in small pieces, simultaneously mixing it with a spatula to avoid the formation of lumps.
