Thursday, October 11, 2012

Dark Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Buttercream - The Science behind a Moist Cake


Not blogging for months does not mean that I lost my passion for food. Oh no! Not in a million of years. In fact, I have been a bit more active on my second blog, Montreal Food Pictures, launched at the beginning of this year. Since a lot of restaurant food pictures are piling up on my laptop, I might as well showcase those too. Here is a glance of pictures of my new website.


As a scientist, I enjoy analysing, I enjoy breaking down problems into smaller pieces, understanding each part individually and solving them. I also do the same for recipes. Have you ever ask yourself why a recipe uses these ingredients, or are all these ingredients necessarily for this recipe? How about... why do you have to mix these ingredients in this order? What happened if you mix up the order? I do ask myself these questions, and sometimes I can tell if the recipe will turn out to be a disaster by simply reading it... Maybe because of my cooking experience and my knowledge in food science that I know...or simply instincts...

A few months back, I wanted to produce the moistest cake ever for my good friend Jorge. I have bake several cakes in the past for my friends' birthday although I always desired a moister cake. Now, I'm quite confident that this is THE moistest cake that I have ever made. How? Let me go through with you the secrets behind this chocolate cake recipe. Once you grasp them, you can apply these little tips to any other cake recipes. Don't be afraid to tweak any cake recipe, even mine!

It is all about knowing your ingredients, what is the central role for each ingredient? Also, it is important to know your basics. Have a look at the list of ingredients for this chocolate cake recipe below, three components are key to make a cake moist:

1. Fats like butter, yoghurt and oil are considered as tenderizers. They coat the proteins of the flour to prevent them from binding with water to form gluten. Developing a gluten network leads to a bread-like texture. A weak gluten network is the trick to make the cake soft.

2. Cake flour is a key ingredient, it has less proteins than all-purpose flour, and less gluten forms when mixing with the batter. You can make your own cake flour by mixing 7 parts all-purpose flour with 1 part cornstarch.

3. Cream of tartar and baking soda is a killer combination. Baking soda requires an acid for its activation. Any acid such as cream of tartar, buttermilk, vinegar, chocolate, honey, and/or molasses would do the job. The reaction forms bubbles of carbon dioxide in the batter making the cake lighter and puffier.

Make sense? The next time that you make a cake, consider applying all these tips. Let me know how it turns out.

Makes 2 11-inch cake
Preparation Time: 20 mins
Baking Time: 25 mins

Ingredients

Génoise
2 cups boiling water
1 cup cocoa powder
2 3/4 cups cake flour
2 tsps baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups white sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Buttercream Icing
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 3/4 cup icing sugar
1/3 cup milk

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Grease 2 11-inch round cake pans.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk cocoa powder with boiling water until smooth. Let mixture cool.


4. Sift together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Set aside.

5. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (like a whipping cream texture). Beat in one egg at a time, then add in vanilla.



6. Incorporate flour mix with cocoa mixture alternatively into the butter mix.



7. Spread batter evenly between two pans. Bake for 25 mins.



8. Meanwhile, prepare the Chocolate Buttercream Icing. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and cocoa butter until creamy. Whisk in milk and icing sugar alternatively until it reaches a frosting consistency.


9. Remove cake from oven. Cool completely before releasing the cake. Frost génoise with chocolate buttercream.


24 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tips, I'll sure keep them in mind when baking cakes in the future. There is nothing like a moist chocolate cake, from my experience moist chocolate cakes have stronger taste of chocolate and the flavor last longer :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I needed a recipe for a cake as my nephew was asking me to make a cake for him. I think that your cake recipe is the perfect and by understanding the science of the cake it would be easy baking.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is delicious to do it. I want to play it. For those who want to eat. Click here to view this website. This menu is very delicious. แม่และเด็ก

    ReplyDelete
  4. สล็อตออนไลน์ เกมสล็อต live22 ฟรีเครดิต
    https://www.slotxd.com/live22

    ReplyDelete
  5. กินขนมไปด้วย ดูหนังออนไลน์Darkest Hour ชั่วโมงพลิกโลก (2017)ไปด้วย มีความสุขที่สุดไปเลย

    https://www.doonung1234.com/

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is an excellent post I seen thanks to share it. It is really what I wanted to see hope in future you will continue for sharing such a excellent post. If you love pets, let visit game sims 4 cheats to create a wonderful pet

    ReplyDelete
  7. หัวใจของการเล่นบาคาร่าให้ได้กำไรมาก นอกเหนือจากที่จะรู้เรื่องแนวทางเล่นแล้ว เป็นจำต้องมีเคล็ดลับพิเศษส่วนตัว ประสบการณ์สำหรับเพื่อการเล่น รวมทั้งเงินลงทุนที่สมควร หากขาดอย่างใดอย่างหนึ่งไป กระบวนการทำผลกำไรก็จะยากขึ้น โดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่งมือใหม่ที่ยังไม่มีประสบการณ์ ก็ชอบแทงเสียบ่อยๆสิ่งที่สามารถช่วยให้เพิ่มจังหวะชนะเพิ่มขึ้นเรื่อยๆ ก็มีอยู่ทางเดียวก็คือ การใช้สูตรบาคาร่าเข้ามาช่วยสำหรับการเล่นนั่นเอง >>>สูตรบาคาร่า

    ReplyDelete
  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  9. ะบบบริการลูกค้าที่จะรอบริการสม่ำเสมอตลอด 1 วัน พอใจหายห่วง ไม่มีปัญหาอะไรก็ตามหรือจำเป็นต้องรอบริการนานเกินไป เพราะเหตุว่าพวกเราคณะทำงานซัพพอร์ตลูกค้ากว่า 20 ผู้ที่จะรอดูแลความสบายให้กับสมาชิก
    pussy888gm
    blognewstime

    ReplyDelete
  10. A debt of gratitude is in order for each other instructive site. The spot else might just I get that sort of data written in such a perfect means? I have an endeavor that I'm quite recently working on, and I have been watchful
    for such data.escorta?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Much obliged to you for some other instructive site. The spot else might just I get that sort of data written in such a flawless strategy? I have
    an endeavor that I am basically now running on, and I've been at the look out for such information.Escorte Brasov

    ReplyDelete
  12. Be that as it may, openness to sun isn't the lone justification the event of spots. They can be brought about by different components going from maturing to chemical variances. A few drugs can expand affectability to the sun, prompting dark spots. https://www.goshlife.com/vitamin-c-face-serum.html

    ReplyDelete
  13. This is an excellent post I seen thanks to share it. It is really what I wanted to see hope in future you will continue for sharing such a excellent post. If you love Fun Then must visit HERE

    ReplyDelete
  14. Really enjoyed this article post. Really looking forward to read more. Will read on... baking workshop to attend

    ReplyDelete
  15. I appreciate you sharing this article post. Keep writing.
    best korean buttercream class

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow, your blog 88square is amazing. You have given very informative information, it will help many people to learn something.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Very appreciated and great posting.
    https://www.garima-pandey.com/

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...