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Cakes - ingredients, composition
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Friday, 01 June, 2012, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Suresha S V, Jamuna K V, Rani Aravind
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fiogf49gjkf0d Cake is a form of food, typically a sweet, baked dessert. Cakes normally contain a combination of flour, sugar, eggs and butter or oil, with some varieties also requiring liquid (typically milk or water) and leavening agents (such as yeast or baking powder).
Cake is a form of bread or bread-like food. In its modern forms, it is typically a sweet and enriched baked dessert. In its oldest forms, cakes were normally fried breads or cheesecakes, and normally had a disk shape. Determining whether a given food should be classified as bread, cake, or pastry can be difficult. Although clear examples of the difference between cake and bread are easy to find, the precise classification has always been elusive.
For example, banana bread may be properly considered either a quick bread or a cake. The most obvious differences between a "cake" and "bread" were the round, flat shape of the cakes and the cooking method, which turned cakes over once while cooking, while bread was left upright throughout the baking process. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain.
Shift in market
Today, as the bread and cake industry has entered the 21st century, significant changes have been occurring in the sector. During the 1990s, the industry had been relatively stable. However, during the 20th century the industry had consolidated through acquisitions and mergers as firms. The estimate made by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (1998), the total market of bakery product, bread and biscuit is estimated at 1.5 mn ton and 1.1 mn ton respectively. The cake market is estimated at 0.4mn ton.
In 1977-78, government reserved the confectionery cake and biscuit manufacturing for small-scale and restricted entry of large producers. During the last 2 decades, small and unorganised players shared the growth in the industry. Currently, there are an estimated 2 million bakeries across the country engaged in production of bread, biscuits and cakes.
Modern cake, especially layer cakes, normally contain a combination of flour, sugar, eggs, and butter or oil, with some varieties also requiring liquid (typically milk or water) and leavening agents (such as yeast or baking powder). Flavourful ingredients like fruit purées, nuts, dried or candied fruit, or extracts are often added, and numerous substitutions for the primary ingredients are possible. Cakes are often filled with fruit preserves or dessert sauces (like pastry cream), iced with butter cream or other icings, and decorated with marzipan, piped borders or candied fruit
Cake is often the dessert of choice for meals at ceremonial occasions, particularly weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays. There are countless cake recipes; some are bread-like, some rich and elaborate, and many are centuries old. Cake making is no longer a complicated procedure; while at one time considerable labour went into cake making baking equipment and directions have been simplified that even the most amateur cook may bake a cake.
Ingredients & cooking
Cakes are broadly divided into several categories, based primarily on ingredients and cooking techniques.
Yeast cakes are the oldest, very similar to yeast breads. Such cakes are often very traditional in form, and include such pastries as babka and stollen.
Cheesecakes, despite their name, are not really cakes at all. Cheesecakes are in fact custard pies, with a filling made mostly of some form of cheese (often cream cheese, mascarpone, ricotta or the like), and have very little flour added, although a flour-based crust may be used. Cheesecakes are also very old, with evidence of honey-sweetened cakes dating back to ancient Greece.
Sponge cakes are thought to be the first of the non-yeast-based cakes and rely primarily on trapped air in a protein matrix (generally of beaten eggs) to provide leavening, sometimes with a bit of baking powder or other chemical leaven added as insurance. Such cakes include the Italian/Jewish pan di Spagna and the French Génoise. Highly decorated sponge cakes with lavish toppings are sometimes called gateau; the French word for cake.
Butter cakes, including the pound cake and devil's food cake, rely on the combination of butter, eggs, and sometimes baking powder or bicarbonate of soda to provide both lift and a moist texture.
Some varieties of cake are widely available in the form of cake mixes, wherein some of the ingredients are premixed, and the cook needs to add only a few extra ingredients, usually eggs, water, and sometimes vegetable oil or butter.
Common cake shapes
m Layer cakes, frequently baked in a spring form pan and decorated
m Sheet cakes, simple, flat, rectangular cakes baked in sheet pans
m Cupcakes and madeleines, which are both sized for a single person
m Bundt cakes
m Swiss roll cakes
m Cake balls
Cakes may be classified according to the occasion for which they are intended. For example, wedding cakes, birthday cakes, Christmas cakes, etc. are all identified primarily according to the celebration they are intended to accompany. Cakes are frequently described according to their physical form. Cakes may be small and intended for individual consumption. Larger cakes may be made with the intention of being sliced and served as part of a meal or social function.
Special cake flour with a high starch-to-gluten ratio is made from fine-textured, soft, low-protein wheat. It is strongly bleached, and compared to all-purpose flour, cake flour tends to result in cakes with a lighter, less dense texture. Therefore, it is frequently specified or preferred in cakes meant to be soft, light, and or bright white, such as angel food cake. However, if cake flour is called for, a substitute can be made by replacing a small percentage of all-purpose flour with cornstarch or removing two tablespoons from each cup of all-purpose flour. Some recipes explicitly specify or permit all-purpose flour, notably where a firmer or denser cake texture is desired.
A finished cake is often enhanced by covering it with icing, or frosting, and toppings such as sprinkles. These include several specialised sprinkles and even methods to print pictures and transfer the image onto a cake.
Special tools are needed for more complex cake decorating, such as piping bags or syringes, and various piping tips. Royal icing, marzipan, fondant icing and butter cream are used as covering icings and to create decorations. To use a piping bag or syringe, a piping tip is attached to the bag or syringe using a coupler. The bag or syringe is partially filled with icing which is sometimes coloured. Using different piping tips and various techniques, a cake decorator can make many different designs.
Tips for baking good cake
n Weigh ingredients carefully.
n Use the specified flour.
n Always use room-temperature, large eggs, unless recipes calls for other (If in a hurry, the chill can be removed from eggs by dipping in a bowl of warm water).
n Use the shortening called for in a recipe.
n Butter should be at room temperature.
n Most recipes require that the oven be preheated.
n Always use the size pans called for in a recipe.
n Shiny metal pans produce the best cakes.
n Dark non-stick or glass pans readily absorb heat. Cakes baked in these pans might do better in an oven set for 25 degrees lower than recipe specifies.
n Unless o
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