A different way?

[shimmer]

I tried a recipe at work the other day that I was very unsatisfied with. It is a cake that is often requested by the customers, but I hadn't made it yet. The directions instruct you to take the cake immediately from the oven and take it out of the pan right away and wrap it in plastic, to keep the cake moist.

Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but what happens to me when I take a cake right out of the pan, it breaks and cracks. And it did. Luckily we use icing with Crisco (yuck) for that cake, to make it completely white, so I was able to make it stick together.

This got me thinking that there must be a better way, you know, like a moistening ingredient that would do the same trick, maybe pudding or something like that? Something that would save me from doing kitchen tricks like flipping a hot cake gently from a pan?

I don't have the recipe right here, but it was a basic white cake recipe, egg whites, almond extract, cake flour, etc. And when I iced the cake it was so "moist" it was practically gummy. Yech.

Any suggestions?

~~Shimmer~~

 

[dominique]

I have some cake recipes that I take out of the pan immediatly, but they're pretty light cakes.

I'm thinking that if the whole reason for taking it out is just so you can wrap it in plastic, why can't you just cover the cake pan in plastic until it cools and then take it out?

Personally, if I was doing it, I'd ignore the directions and just let it cool in the pan like any other cake and then take it out and wrap it. I'd bet it would still be moist.

Good luck!

 

[w.debord]

I think Dominique suggestion of leaving it in the pan and covering is fine. That gets your objective completed. If you don't have enough pans to tie up this way...before you invert onto a cardboard (to wrap) you need to level your cake. A hot cake with a rounded top will crack everytime if you invert it while warm.

Depending upon your freezer I find most frozen cakes to be moister then fresh. The defrost does moisten. The hot tech. is about the same thing, just steaming for moisture. But back tracking...another thought is...if you wrap the hot cake in the pan with plastic it then probably only steams the top of the cake and that leaves your sides and bottom drier....ie a gummier center. Where as when I freeze a cake not in a pan the whole surface gets the moisture.

Anna is an expert on this technique, lets see what her take on this technique is.

P.S. I'd love to see that recipe Shimmer , if you don't mind?....and yes, puddings do make moister cakes.

 

[anna w.]

W- don't know if I am an expert but I do it a lot so I have practice (and a lot of mistakes )

Try leaving it in the pan 5-10 min to cool then cover a cooling rack or pan or stiff cardboard in plastic wrap, place over pan, flip, wrap (if some is uncovered wrap bottom) then flip back onto rack or cardboard. I have found that the times when this cracks is if there is a big crown or you don't do it fast enough. So try to be prepared before you start.

Is that helpful at all?

 

[thebighat]

I was desparately looking around the kitchen at home for something to invert a sour cream coffee cake onto, and came up with the cover to a Reverware pan. Same size as the cake pan, and nice and dished to allow the domed top of the coffee cake to fit right into it without cracking under it's own weight.