The Basic Cake

[rust_in_peace 2]

THE BASIC CAKE

One would end up bewildered with no end in sight if he/she sat down to count the variations and types of cakes. In fact cakes are noted as the most baked product globally. A symbol of celebration for any occasion, a cake only tastes and feels wonderful if a passionate effort has gone into its making. I am certainly no expert or chef in this field , but I would certainly like to share certain simple tips that make the difference between a lovely cake and an ordinary off the shelf cake from any bakery.

The Tips

Always use fine grained or powdered sugar.(Do not confuse ordinary sugar with Castor or icing sugar)

Beat the eggs till fluffy, an indication of a good eggs mixture is that once u have stopped beating, bubbles would not raise. Moreover, the bubbles would be very small sized and would appear to be an integral part of the mixture, ie the mixture would not flow once the bowl is tilted. The bowl would give you a “lightweight” feeling when moved. For beating an electric egg beater is ideal, however, a whisk is no less.

If u are using butter, it should be either in very soft condition or preferably semi liquid. Do not overdo the butter/oil and egg mixture mixing.

Always pass flour through a sieve, keeping the sieve about a foot high from the mixture. The falling flour takes in air making the cake fluffy and soft.

Never, repeat, Never beat the mixture after the flour has been added, just gently fold it. When making large cakes u can do the floor sieving in two steps.

Once ready, immediately pour into the baking pan and put into the preheated oven.

Do not open the oven for at least first fifteen-twenty minutes. Opening would completely disturb the temperature and ur effort would go in vain.

I think that was enough of lecturing so let’s get down to business. The recipe I am sharing here is my time tested and gives more or so the same results in most kind of ovens/microwave ovens/tandoors and even pressure cookers. Yea u must be wondering it’s a bit too much of an adventure for a cake! Well, I would say in return that food is a passion. I have tried it in all but the pressure cooker; my aunt tried it and found it successful.

So I call it the basic cake recipe, the one which u can enjoy at tea time without reservations about ur waistline, which we generally have with cream topped cakes.

INGRIDIENTS

Eggs 3 large sized

Sugar ¾ Cup

Oil ¾ cup

Flour ¾ cup (U can be liberal with flour, but restrict to a maximum of 1 cup; best results are with ¾ cup, though)

Baking Powder 1 teaspoon, leveled.

Vanilla essence 2-3 drops

Method

Set the oven to preheat. The desired temperature is 180 Celsius, but most of us do not have such accurate ovens (even the ones with gas marks calibration seldom give good results). So I would share my experience here and would recommend the knob to be set at half way of its full travel. Normally the desired temperature is realized in about fifteen minutes.

When using microwave ovens, keep the setting on “convection” only; let me remind here that this recipe is not a microwave cook. The convection option is well suited as it’s based on circulating hot air.

When using small electric ovens, keep temperature to 170 Celsius, remember the heat distribution is not uniform in these types of ovens.

First grease the baking pan lightly with oil or butter. The pan size can vary; my pan is 7 by 7 inches with 3 inch depth. You may dust the pan with dry flour lightly or even use butter paper to keep the cake from sticking to the walls and base. Well this recipe does not need a paper protection.

Now add in the baking powder to the dry flour and mix the dry constituents, set them aside.

Now put the eggs, vanilla essence and sugar in a bowl and beat the mixture as above (tips).

Add in butter/oil and just beat enough to get a homogenous mix.

Sieve through, the dry flour mixture slowly (as described above in tips) when finished gently fold in the flour.

Now without wasting time pour into the baking pan and place in the oven.

Normally, the cake would be ready in approximately 40 minutes or so. But do check it after 30 minutes (remember, the smaller the oven the lesser the time to bake) by piercing with a small knife or even with a toothpick.

Once confirmed take out the cake and let it cool. Do not leave the cake in a cooling oven as it would dry out. U may dust it with cocoa powder for flavor or icing sugar and dried coconut for a good look.

There you go, if u had followed the recipe you sure would get appreciations from others and it takes no harm to pat yourself on your back for soft, fresh cake.

Dear readers, it would really be a pleasure reading your feedbacks.

Oops! I almost forgot, this recipe can be very successfully be doubled and tripled, trust me, the results are still the same.

Edited September 8, 2009 by rust_in_peace