Unfilled Cakes Wrap-Up
The second half of our Classical and Basic Cakes block was focused on unfilled cakes, which meant tarts and unlayered cakes. This section featured creaming and foaming method cakes, and some rolling out of dough.
The Basque Cake in the front was the popular favorite of the block. It was tall and moist, and bursting with a sugary, buttery goodness — it had a hint of almond flavor to me even though this version doesn’t contain almonds. It has layers of batter on the bottom and top, with pastry cream in the middle, and it is all baked together. The Basque Cakes that I’ve had in the past (made at home and in French Basque Country) have always been shorter and more disc-like, with an almost scone-like cake part. I usually like it with cherries in the middle along with or instead of the pastry cream, but the plain pastry cream worked in this one — and virtually blended into the baked cake by the end. I was happy to discover this new variation on a cake that I already loved.
Behind it are Lemon Semolina Cakes soaked in lemon syrup, which had a bright kick of lemon and was nicely moist.
This is a Swedish Hazelnut Tart. The flavors were unbalanced in it (way too strong orange and hazelnuts). I’m not sure if I like putting citrus with its peel onto to tarts; it seems like an inconvenience that the eater must figure out how to deal with.
This is also how you can cut a tart into 22 pieces. Cut it in half, and then use a cookie cutter to cut a circle in the middle, and then cut the halves into fourths, and then cut each fourth into five pieces.
This Raspberry Genoise Tart was like a tart filled with sponge cake that turned out a little custardy. The combination of textures didn’t really work for me, and it was kind of bland. I would have just preferred a vanilla custard with raspberries inside instead.
This Flourless Chocolate Cake was rich and full of chocolate. It was still a bit soft in the middle when we ate it the day that it was made; for a firmer texture and a more developed flavor, it’s recommended to chill it for a day.
This Orange Cake had reduced orange juice and zest, and an orange syrup brushed on top. I find that syrup brushed into cake makes it too sweet, wet, and spongy on the edges. We learned about degrees Baume, which can measure the concentration of sugar in a mixture, such sugar to water. 1-28 degrees Baume is unsaturated and 29 is saturated, and once you get above that, its measured more in the degree and stage that it’s at (like soft crack, hard ball, etc). Simple syrup (with equal parts sugar and water) is 25 degrees Baume, but for a syrup to soak cakes, 18 degrees is desirable. So, when you add juice or alcohol to simple syrup, there’s a way to mathematically compute how much of each element you need to get to 18. The syrup is also supposed to have a balanced flavor at 18. We learned about that in lecture, but never measured it in the kitchen.
And I made this cake twice, because both times, the cake came out of the convection oven sunk down around the middle tube. It was a little better the second time, but no one could figure out why it happened. I wish I knew, b/c I don’t want that to happen when I bake again in a savarin mold. At least the depression is hidden a bit when it’s unmolded upside-down, but a single slice would reveal the imperfection.
I didn’t get a picture of it, but we also made a couple Mascarpone Chocolate Swirl Cheesecakes. It was supposed to have a caramelized top, but the one we tried got too much sugar on it so it didn’t all melt. On the other hand, I think that the caramelized top is unnecessary, so it’s good that the one that went out was plain.
We also made a Frangipane Tart and a completely fantastic Tarte Tatin. We made both for the practical, so they’ll pop up on that post.
