Conventional or Traditional Sponges

"Hmmm" we made sponges and we had some very interesting and varied results!Let's discuss briefly why the results in our products varied. There are two basic ways to produce a conventional sponge:

1) Warm Foaming.

2) Cold Foaming.

In the first method we warmed the eggs and sugar over a baire marie to 43 degrees celcius ensuring the sugar had completely dissolved.Why did we do this? This helps improve the emulsifying properties of the eggs, the warm eggs will aerate faster and create an emulsion which has greater stability. Remember if the eggs aerate faster we will also save time!

The cold foaming method only required us to pre-condition the eggs to 23 degrees celcius. We then aerated the eggs with the sugar. You should have noticed that this method takes a little longer for the eggs to reach the correct volume and consisitency. You will also have noticed that there is less stability in the egg foam because the mixture is cooler.

Why is it less stable when using the cold foaming method?

When we heat the eggs we change the nature of the protein in the eggs (De-nature), in other words we are encouraging the partial coagulation of the proteins and it is this which contributes to the greater stability in the egg foam.

Are you a little confused? Read the posting on proteins and coagulation, that should help, if you are still confused come and see me in class. Remember it takes a little time to learn something new!

What's wrong with that???

Well it won't be long before you will need to sit your faults exam and you should be getting pretty good at evaluating products by now. Besides giving yourself a pat on the back for the things you do well in class you need to reflect on what you didn't do well.... in other words ask yourself "what's wrong with that?"

When we talked in class we said that all cake faults could be put into 1 of 3 catergories:

1. Human Error. Examples of this are when we make a mistake when we weigh up or process the ingredients.
2. Calculation Error. The recipe ratio is not in balance, the ingredients are not in the correct amounts to produce a cake with out faults.
3. Ingredient Error or Flaw. The recipe uses the incorrect ingredient or there is a problem with the ingredient, for example we use bakers flour instead of hi ratio flour. Or another example would be we use Baking powder that is no longer as active because it has not been stored properly.

Understanding formula balance is important in the production of a cake without faults. Ingredients work in relation to each other, for example if we look at the four basic ingredients in a cake batter, fat, sugar, flour and eggs we would be able to break these up into several groups based on their function in the cake.

• Flour and eggs provide strength and structure to a cake because they contain proteins which coagulate when heat is applied.
• Eggs and fat are ingredients which help open the texture of a cake because they have the ability to hold or trap air with in the cake batter.
• Sugar helps to open the texture of a cake because it assists the aeration of the fat and eggs.
• Melted fat closes the texture of the cake and reduces lightness because it is a liquid.

Are you starting to understand how things work in together? Ask yourself the question if "I increase or decrease a particular ingredient what could I expect to happen" Try and predict the outcome......

Cake faults link

What causes a cake fault?
There are three main reasons for cake faults:

1. Human error
2. Calculation error
3. Ingredient error

Go to the following link you will be able to watch a short film on cake faults.

http://www.hunter.tafensw.edu.au/libraries/campuses/hamilton/cake_faults/cake-faults.htm

This is a great revision tool for the up and coming exam. Remember to be able to successfully identify a fault you need to be able to understand the function of the ingredients. Which ingredient causes a cake to rise? Which ingredients are responsible for the structure in the cake? What causes the texture to be closed or open in a cake.

Each time you look at a recipe you should ask yourself what the purpose of each ingredient is and how it contributes to the final product.

Flour

It is only a few weeks before you have your first assessent and there is a lot of work to be done..... so where do we start?

It is important that you are beginning to understand the functions of the ingredients in a cake batter. Why? This understanding of how things work and the role each ingredient plays in the formation of a cake will help you to assess a fault in a cake.

How does this work?
In class we talked about how wheaten flour is different from other flours such as rice, corn, rye or potato flour. We discussed the role of flour in the baking industry.
Have a look at these links for a refresher on flour:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour#Wheat_flour

We did a gluten wash and I showed you the result, remember the elastic like mass I passed around class that looked like a big wad of chewing gum? You will need to have flash adobe to view the film.

http://blip.tv/file/154736/

Remember wheaten flour is key component in providing structure and bulk in our products.

Flour Batter Method

What did we cover this week, we looked at another method of production called the "Flour batter" method. Can you recall what the history and advantages of this method are?

Here's a clue, click on the link and take a look at the article listed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom_during_and_after_World_War_II

Do you remember now?
Food Rationing during the war made it differcult to obtain ingredients such as butter, sugar, eggs and milk. The "Flour batter" method of cake production enabled people to produce a good quality cake from a cheap or inexpensive recipe.

How did we do this?
Look at the recipe on page 74 of your books......

1. We creamed equal parts of the fat with the flour in the begining of the mixing process, creaming a mixture puts air into the mix. This contributes to the rise in the cake batter when it is baked.
2. Coating a portion of the flour with fat also helps stop over developing the gluten forming proteins in the flour. By controlling the gluten development we helped make a cake with soft or tender eating qualities.
3. We aerated the eggs with some of the sugar. This helped increase the amount of mechanical aeration in the finished cake batter ensuring our cake would rise.
4. When we added the beaten egg to the flour batter mix we prevented the cake batter from curdling. This was because of the large proportion of flour already present in the mix assited in emulsifying the ingredients.
5. Adding the remaining flour last ensured that the flour would not be over worked and the protein in the flour would not become tough and elastic.

Can you see why it is important to understand the functions of your ingredients?

If you undertand what things do then you can adjust your recipes to allow for a lack of ingredients or solve a fault in a product you make. This ability to problem solve is an important part of being a baker or Pastry Chef.

Have a look at the information on flour when you get a chance, this will support what we are talking about in class.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour

And remember if you have a question relating to this ask, you will not be the only person who is wondering what it all means but you may be the only person brave enough to speak up.

See you in class :-)

4 methods of production

Hi Guys (and Gals)

well we have covered a fair bit in the last couple of weeks, it is good to see you in class more confident and becoming familar with the layout of the bakery. Not so many people this week asking where the bowls and jugs are!!

So what have we learnt so far, we talked about the different ways we process the ingredients to produce a cake. We have identified 4 processing methods and these were:

1. All in
2. Sugar Batter
3. Flour Batter
4. Blend

By week three we would have produced a cake using each of the methods above and we will have started to identify the advantages and disadvantages in each method.

For example when we did the "All In" method we discussed the ease of production, everything went in the bowl at the same time. The timer went on, we scrapped down twice and the mix was ready within minutes. There seemed to be only a minimal amount of skill required, mearsuring accurately and the ability to follow instructions regarding mixing speeds and times.

When we did the "sugar batter" method we discovered we needed a greater amount of skill, we needed to:

• Identify when the sugar and fat were aerated correctly.
• We needed to precondition ingredients in order for them to emulsify correctly.
• We had determine when the groups of ingredients needed to be added. We looked for the different signs that told us each addition had been cleared and we could add the next amount.

Did you think this method needed a little more skill then the "All In"?

Click on the comments and let me know what you thought and why.

First Day here......

Well by the time you all read this you will have completed your first lesson, hopefully it wasn't too over whelming!!

In this lesson we covered several different areas including:

• Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S)


• Class room management, we discussed what we expect our learning enviroment to be like and we layed down a few ground rules.


• We talked also about what we want to achieve this semester and how we are going to be successful.

You also got to make Rock cakes......

Did you know there is actually alot of learning involved in making a rock cake?

We covered the type of aeration used in this product, which we identified as "chemical" and we also looked at what "Rubbing in" achieves. Have a look at this link and learn more about Baking powder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baking_powder

Remember it isn't about the rock cake it's the learning behind the rock cake, well done to you all.