Lined up in row after row on a table at the front of the room, the 60 angel food cakes looked more like vague acquaintances than twins or even relatives. There were pumpernickel-brown cakes and cakes as pale as marshmallows. Tall, statuesque cakes sat next to short, stubby cakes. A few sagged in the middle or slouched to one side as if embarrassed by the way they had turned out. Some appeared to have been sandblasted smooth; others had a nubby surface like the nap of a suede jacket.
Despite their stunning differences, though, these cakes all shared one surprising characteristic: Each had been baked by a professional baker following exactly the same recipe.
Most people would find this amazing, not to say discouraging. For the San Francisco-based Baker's Dozen, though, there was nothing in the least disconcerting about the idea that one recipe could produce such wildly disparate results. But, then, this is not just any group. Founded 12 years ago by a handful of bakers, it sprang from a desire to pool experiences. "Baking professionally can be isolating," explains Carolyn Weil, one of the group's founders, who discovered that she wasn't the only one craving fellowship when more than 40 bakers and pastry chefs showed up at the first meeting.
Today, the group is more than 350 strong. Members get together periodically to conduct tastings, perform kitchen experiments, and debate such topics as "technique versus equipment in soft and hard meringues." Appropriately enough for a profession with a reputation for nurturing quixotic solo operatives, the Baker's Dozen is amiably anarchistic. They have no hierarchy, no newsletter, and no regularly scheduled meetings. Low dues make membership accessible to even the most impoverished culinary school grad. And while the Baker's Dozen's mailing list contains the names of luminaries such as Flo Braker and Marion Cunningham, the organization is founded on the premise that even a rank neophyte can make an important contribution, just as the most exalted expert can produce a colossal failure.
"There are no secrets here," says Braker. "We have absolutely no shame. You might think that some of these people never make a mistake, but you wouldn't believe some of the flops!"
Even the most cursory glance at the table provided ample evidence that her pronouncement was more than just rhetoric. Because the army of cakes sitting there had been made from the same quantities of the same ingredients, the assembled bakers soon focused on the issue of technique, specifically on what each had done differently when following the recipe. It became clear that many of the variations in the finished cakes could be attributed to the way in which the bakers had whipped their egg whites. The most successful cakes, those that were light and tender, had been made with soft, droopy whites.
"Think of the egg whites as a bubble," suggested Weil. "You want them at the point where they still have room to expand, not when they are about to pop." Weil's observation sparked an animated discussion on the optimal size and shininess of the bubbles at the side of the mixing bowl, the precise way a dollop of softly whipped white loops back on itself, and the relative merits of using cream of tartar or a copper bowl.
But the assembled bakers did more than just bat the issue around. They know from experience that it is one thing to talk about these issues—a process that can make "soft peaks" sound maddeningly glib—but quite another to distill the information so obtained into a recipe that yields consistent results. So, working as a group, they went on to decide how best to fit what they learned that day into a revised version of the original angel food cake recipe.
This more foolproof version is among the recipes included in The Baker's Dozen Cookbook, published this month. Editors include Alice Medrich on chocolate, Lindsey Shere on tarts, and Carol Field, Fran Gage, and Peter Reinhart on bread. Cook¬book author and baking legend Marion Cunningham hopes the book will inspire bakers across the country to form supportive networks based, like the Baker's Dozen, on the exchange of information.
"Our only mission is to learn and pass our knowledge on to others," says Cunningham. "Luckily, we'll never run out of things to learn."
BAKERS' TIPS
Over the years, the Baker's Dozen have investigated everything from brands of baking powder to types of pie thickeners. Here are some of their findings:
- Regular commercial cream cheese makes a smoother, silkier-textured cheesecake than cream cheese without gums or stabilizers.
- Cake flour usually makes a light, tender cake, but it is not always the optimum choice. Some cakes, like pound cake and sponge cake, benefit from a slightly sturdier texture.
- Rumford baking powder imparts no metallic aftertaste to baked goods.
- Cornstarch and tapioca flour are preferred as pie thickeners because they are clear and set quickly.
- Tahitian vanilla is nearly undetectable in baked goods but adds a delicate flavor to custards. Madagascar vanilla is better suited to cookies and cakes.
- In some cases the difference between a chocolate cake and a brownie is just a matter of how you mix the ingredients.
- The most important discovery: There is more than one right answer. Very good results can often be obtained in several different ways.
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