When I was a young man, I liked to devote my free Sunday mornings to a busman's holiday. After a strenuous week of supervising the huge kitchens at the old Ritz-Carlton, I enjoyed nothing more than a baking spree in my suburban kitchen, with my little daughter Suzette as a wide-eyed and appreciative audience and ultimate consumer!
But as time passed and my responsibilities grew heavier, our Sunday morning revels became less and less frequent, and filially ceased. I confess that when this very busy and important chef des cuisines stopped at the hotel's pastry kitchen to give the orders for the day, he was sorely tempted to linger there and-I almost said “play”!
Pastry making was one of my early culinary loves, but it has been many years since I actually worked in a pastry kitchen. When it came time, in this series of lessons in classic cuisine, to teach you the basic skills of pastry making, I was beset by doubt. Did I remember all the lessons I had learned? Would I perhaps forger some small but vital detail? Mon Dieu, I thought, perhaps I myself can no longer turn out all the different pâtes!
I was truly disturbed about this problem, until some kind American friends offered me their kitchen as a workshop. It was a typical American kitchen, they assured me, not French, like my own. The equipment in their kitchen was the sort available to most Americans. It would be the best possible way to test myself. So I packed plans for a week of baking in my mind far more carefully than I packed my suitcase, and set out on the grand experiment.
Et Voilâ! Once again, I was a pastry chef, with my hostess for an apprentie. And to my delight, the miracle happened. Suddenly, twenty years seemed to drop away and everything I ever knew about baking came back to me. The look and the feel of the pales were as familiar as if I had left my pastry board only yesterday. And I knew that I could pass on to you, my pupils, all the tricks-down to the seemingly least important ones that mean success or failure in classic pastry making. Some of these tricks applied to the pâtes that I discussed in the previous articles of this pastry series; more of them apply specifically to the butter cakes and spongecakes with which this chapter deals.
I was delighted to find in my friend's kitchen heavy baking pans of the kind I prefer; cakes bake more evenly and rise belter in a heavy pan. I found also the essential measuring cups and spoons, a good flour sifter, a wooden mixing spoon, a flexible spatula, and pastry bags equipped with several kinds of tubes. I like to use a pastry brush for oiling the pans and for glazing the tops of some pastries, and, for cooling the cakes, I like wire racks which allow the air to circulate evenly around them. My friend had an efficient electric beater, a great work saver, but I suggested that an extra set of beater blades would save time when egg whites and yolks must be beaten separately.
Chemical leavenings like baking powder do not belong to the classic cuisine of France. Lightness is achieved with eggs, and French cakes have a slightly different texture from that of the usual American layer cake. Of course, eggs cost more than baking powder; but on the other hand, these cakes require less butter, and the fillings and icings may be omitted altogether (dieters, please note!) without sacrificing the deliciousness of the cake.
Gâteaux raised with eggs are basically simple mixtures. The main ingredients arc eggs, sugar, and flour, or eggs, sugar, flour, and butter. Vanilla or lemon may be used as a flavoring, and sometimes almond powder is an additional ingredient.
My notebooks list many gateaux, all different, and yet not very different. One recipe varies the proportions, another combines the ingredients in a different manner, still another uses a different pan and different icing and filling. But the basic pâtes-the French for batters or doughs-are essentially unaltered.
The first and most important step in making these egg-raised pâtes is the initial beating of the sugar and eggs, In some recipes the whole eggs are beaten with the sugar, in others only the yolks are beaten with the sugar, and the whites are beaten separately and folded in at the last. There is one precaution you should observe: never use very cold eggs. Take the eggs out of the refrigerator an hour before you begin to mix the cake. Beat the mixture in a warm bowl. Most French chefs wrap the mixing bowl in a large towel wet with very hot water. Or you may simply rinse the bowl with hot water beforehand and set it in a second bowl of hot water. Then beat the eggs and sugar until the mixture is lukewarm, and very light and fluffy. When only the yolks are used, the mixture should flow from the beater in ribbons, and be almost white. It can then be allowed to cool, but the beating goes on. This procedure takes from twenty to thirty minutes with a hand whip, and about five or six minutes with an electric beater.
Having beaten all this air into the barter. One must be very careful not to lose it. Therefore the flour, the egg whites, if they arc added separately, and the butter, if it is used, are folded, not stirred, into the batter with a spatula, which lifts the mass of beaten egg and sugar over and over the added ingredients until they are evenly distributed. Work carefully and slowly, and with a very light touch. Never use an unnecessary stroke. Melted butter requires special attention, because it is likely to slip to the bottom of the bowl and remain there in a little pool, not to be discovered until the moment when you pour the batter into the pan. You can prevent this unhappy situation by running the spatula over the bottom of the bowl as you fold the butter in, literally lifting the butter into the batter.
A French pastry chef weighs his ingredients, and many of his recipes call for a certain number of grams of arrowroot or rice flower or potato Hour in addition to the fine wheat flower. But realizing how impractical this method would be in most American kitchens, I have measured all the ingredients and use fine cake flour for all these pastries. Since fine flour is so apt to pack or settle unevenly in the package, sift the flour first and then measure it.
To prepare the baking pans, butter them or brush them with oil, using the pastry brush, and dust them lightly with flour. For some cakes, the pan may be lined with wax paper or with heavy white paper. French cakes are not usually baked in separate layers; a layer cake is made from a single cake split into two or three slices.
The biscuit de Savoie. or spongecake, is baked in a high mold, not in the tube pan used for American spongecakes.
Although there are some exceptions, most of these cakes should bake at a low temperature, and they rise better on the lower nicks of the oven. Press the cake lightly with a finger; a well-baked cake springs back at once. When the coke is done it shrinks slightly from the sides of the pan, and a skewer thrust into the center of the cake comes out dry and clean.
I have gathered for you here the traditional basic recipes that should be in every pastry cook's repertoire. The cakes made without butter are very light; when butter is added, they have a firmer texture. Almond powder, which is added to some cakes, adds firmness and moisture. Layer cakes and petits fours are usually cut from butter and almond cakes, since these slice more easily than spongecakes.
One last word before I begin the recipes: have all the ingredients measured and ready before you begin to combine them. Light the oven before you be gin to mix the cake And take the time to read and reread the recipe, if necessary, until you are quite familiar with it.
Beat 8 egg yolks, 1 ½ cups sugar and ½ teaspoon lemon (or orange or vanilla) flavoring in a warm howl with a hand whip or an electric beater until the mixture is thick and creamy. Add 1 whole egg and continue to beat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is very light and Huffy. Measure I ¾ cups sifted cake Hour (or use 1 ½ cups sifted flour and ¼ cup cornstarch) and fold it into the mixture in 3 portions with a metal spatula.
Beat 8 egg whites until they are stiff and cut and fold them into the hatter, Butter a deep pan or fancy mold, sprinkle it with sugar and fill it about 2/3 full. Bake the biscuit in a slow oven (50(T F.) for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the cake is a light brown and tests done.
Pâte à Biscuit au Beurre (Butter Spongecake)
Beat 4 egg yolks and ½ cup sugar in a warm howl with a hand whip or electric beater until the mixture is very light and fluffy and almost while. Measure 1 cup less 2 tablespoons sifted cake flour and fold it into the mixture in 3 portions with a metal spatula. Beat 4 egg whites until they are stiff and cut and fold them into the batter with the spatula, Add 4 tablespoons butter, melted over low heat and cooled, gradually cutting and folding it in with the spatula.
Pour the batter into a pan that has been buttered and sprinkled With flour. Fill the pan to a depth of ¾ inch to 2 inches, depending upon how the cake is to be used. Bake the cake in a moderate oven (325° to 350° F.) for 25 to 35 minutes, or until it tests done. Turn it out on a wire rack to cool. Split it to make 2 or 3 layers and spread pastry cream or jam between the layers. Spread apricot jam or puree very thinly over the top and sides and then cover the cake with fondant king (March, 1956). Decorate it with glazed fruit.
Pâte a Génoise (Light Butter Cake)
In a bowl combine 4 eggs, ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract. Set the bowl in a second bowl filled with fairly hot water and beat the mixture until it is lukewarm, very light and fluffy, and lias doubled in bulk. This will take about 20 minutes with a hand whip or 5 minutes with an electric beater. Remove the bowl from the hot water and continue to beat the mixture until it is cool. Measure 1 cup less 2 tablespoons sifted cake flour and cut and fold it into the mixture in 3 portions with a metal spatula. Fold in 7 tablespoons butter melted over low heat and cooled.
Pour the batter into a buttered and floured pan to a depth of ¾ inch to 2 inches, depending upon how the cake is to be used. Bake the cake in a moderate oven (325° to 350° F.) for 25 to 35 minutes, until it tests done. Turn the cake out on a wire rack to cool. This recipe makes One 10-inch Square cake or two 8-inch layers or an 8or 9-inch round high cake. If you wish to cut the cake into small fancy shapes and ice them to make petits in fours, bake the cake in a 10by 12-inch sheet.
Here are some of the basic preparations that are used in making gateaux and that are referred to in the recipes that follow.
Almond Powder
Blanch almonds as follows: Soak shelled almonds in boiling water for 2 or 3 minutes, until the skins loosen. Drain the nuts, plunge them into cold water and rub off the skins. Chop the nuts. Spread them on a shallow pan and dry them thoroughly in a very slow oven (250° F.). Cool the nuts and put them through a food chopper, using the finest blade. The almonds may take on a little color during the drying, but they should not be allowed to darken.
Crème an Beurre (Buttter Cream)
Cream 6 tablespoons cold butter quickly with ½ tablespoon sugar. The butter should not become warm. Blend the butter thoroughly and very slowly with ½ cup cold crème pâissière (March, 1956), added a bit at a time.
Crème an Beurre Moka {Mocha Butter Cream)
Add to crème au beurre 1 tablespoon triple-strength coffee.
Glace Royale
To 1 egg while add enough confectioners' sugar to make a thick, smooth paste, stirring constantly.
Gateau aux Matrons {Chestnut Cake)
Make and cool a gonioise or biscuit an beurre and split it into 2 layers. Spread the bottom layer with crème an beurre mixed with finely chopped matrons ghee's. Adjust the top layer and spread the top and sides thinly with apricot jam or puree. Decorate the cake with assorted candied fruits and matrons glacés. Cover the fruit and marronts with transparent icing. The fruits will show through.
Transparent Icing
Make a thick syrup by boiling 1 cup sugar in ½ cup water (without stirring) until the syrup spins a thread or the candy thermometer registers 220° F. Pour the syrup very slowly in a thin stream into a bowl, working it constantly with a wooden spoon until it becomes white and thick. Add I teaspoon rum and continue to work the cream until it is lukewarm. Pour the icing over the decorated cake.
Génoise Glacée
Make a génoise and slice it horizontally into 2 layers. Fill the cake with jam or currant jelly or with pastry cream (March, 1956) or crème an beurre. Brush the top and sides thinly with heavy apricot puree and cover the apricot puree with white fondant (March, 1956) flavored with kirsch or another liqueur. Decorate the cake with glazed fruits or toasted almonds.
Ambassadenr
Make and cool a génoise or biscuit an beurre.' Slice off the top of the cake and scoop out the inside, leaving a shell about ¾ inch thick on the sides and ½ inch thick on the bottom. Prepare a macédoine of mixed, diced fresh fruits, including some strawberries, sweeten it with a little powdered sugar and flavor it with 1 or 2 tablespoons kirsch. Fill the hollowed-out cake with this mixture and replace the top. Brush the cake with apricot jam and sprinkle it with chopped toasted almonds.
Gâteau Moka
Make a génoise or a biscuit an beurre and slice it horizontally into 2 or 3 layers. Spread crème an beurre moka between the layers and cover the cake with crème au beusse To decorate the top, squeeze some of the cream through a pastry bag with a fancy tube. Cover the sides of the cake with chopped toasted almonds. Chill the cake until the crème an beurre is firm before cutting it.
Biscuit Routt (Sponge Roll Cake)
Willi a hand whip or electric beater beat 4 egg yolks and 1/3 cup sugar in a warm bowl until the mixture is very light and “ribbons” as it runs off the beater or spoon. Sprinkle 1/3 cup sifted flour on the egg mixture, cutting and folding it in a little at a time with a metal Spatula. Beat 3 egg whites until they arc stiff but not dry and cut and fold them in with the spatula. Fold in 2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled. Line a large flat jelly-roll pan with wax paper. Butter the paper well and spread the batter evenly on it, about 1/3 inch thick. Bake the cake in a hot oven (400° F.) for 7 to 9 minutes, until it tests done. Turn the cake out to cool on a board dusted with a little confectioners' sugar. Remove the paper. Spread the cake with jelly, pastry cream (March, 1956) or whipped cream, and roll it up. Or cut it into 3 equal strips and arrange the strips in layers, with jelly, whipped cream or pastry cream as a filling.
Gateau à l'Orange (Orange Spongecake)
Beat ½ cup very fine sugar, 1 teaspoon finely grated orange rind and 4 egg yolks in a warm bowl until the mixture is very light and runs off a spoon in ribbons. Add 1 or 2 drops red vegetable coloring. Fold in ½ cup sifted cake flour a little at a time with a metal spatula. Fold in 3 stiffly beaten egg whites. Butter and flour a pan about 2 or 2 ½ inches deep. Bake the gateau in a very moderate oven (325° F.) for 40 minutes, or until the cake tests done.
Turn the cake out on a cake rack to cool. Ice the cake with fondant (March, 1956) lightly timed with yellow coloring and flavored with orange extract, and decorate it with candied orange peel cut in small dice.
Pain de Gênes (Almond Cake)
Make ½ pound almonds into powder. Combine the almond powder with 6 tablespoons fine sugar and 2 eggs, and beat the mixture well with a hand whip or an electric beater. Add 6 tablespoons sugar and another egg, and continue to beat until the mixture is very light and fluffy. Put 6 tablespoons butter, cut in small pieces, into a warm bowl and work it with a wooden spoon until it is very creamy, but not oily. With a metal spatula cut and fold the softened butter into the first mixture. Fold in ½ cup cake flour sifted with ¼ teaspoon salt, and 1 tablespoon kirsch.
Pour the batter into a shallow 8or 9inch pan that has been lined with heavy wax paper and well buttered. Bake the cake in a slow oven (300 ° F.) for 35 to 40 minutes. Turn the cake out on a rack to cool. Remove the paper and serve the cake plain or with a dusting of confectioners' sugar.
Gateau Manqué
Make ½ pound almonds into almond powder. Beat 4 egg yolks and ½ cup sugar with a hand whip or an electric beater until the mixture is very light and fluffy and almost white. Sift ½ cup cake flour with ¼ teaspoon salt and add it to the mixture in 3 parts, folding it in lightly with a metal spatula. Beat 4 egg whites stiff and fold them into the batter with the spatula. Fold in 4 tablespoons butter, melted over low heat and cooled, and ½ cup almond powder. Pour the batter into a 9-inch pan that has been lined with heavy wax paper and well buttered. Bake in a very moderate oven (325° F.) for about 35 minutes. Turn the cake out on a rack to cool and remove the paper.
Mix together 1 egg white, ½ cup confectioners* sugar and 3 tablespoons almond powder. The mixture should be just soft enough to spread easily. If necessary, add more sugar. Spread the icing over the cake and sprinkle it with a little confectioners' sugar. Return the cake to a very slow oven (225°F.) until the icing forms a light crust.
I would like to share with you one of my favorite English recipes for a cake that resembles the poundcake more than it docs the usual English fruitcake. I give it its typically English name.
Plum Cake
Cut 1 cup butter into small pieces, put in a warm bowl and work it with a wooden spoon until it is soft and creamy. Gradually beat in 1 cup sugar. Add 5 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Fold in little by little 1 ¾ cups sifted cake flour sifted with ½ teaspoon baking powder. Dredge lightly with flour ½ cup each California and sultana raisins and ¼ cup candied cherries and fold the fruit lightly into the batter. Fold in the grated rind of 1 lemon and 2 tablespoons rum. Line 2 loaf pans with white paper, butter the paper well and fill the pans 2/3 full. Bake in a slow oven (300 ° F.) for about 1 ¼ hours, or until the cakes are golden brown, have shrunk from the sides of the pan and test done.