Room temperature eggs July 23, 2009

Ok, I know July is almost over but I couldn’t wait to start MoM (Method of the Month)!  I will keep a log roll of all the postings that have to do with each MoM so there’s no missing out.

Baking with room temperature eggs

I’ve decided to start with room temperature eggs for baking.  Have you ever wondered why baking recipes call for this?  Or did you learn the hard way after a giant crater attacked the center of your cake (me! me! me!)?

First, let’s understand the parts of an egg.  Common knowledge would be shell, egg white and yolk, sometimes two yolks if you’re lucky!  Haha, this is rare so don’t worry about having twins.  Anywho, the role of the egg in baking is defined like this:

As an ingredient, egg yolks are an important emulsifier in the kitchen, and the proteins in egg white allow it to form foams and aerated dishes.

So depending on what the recipe calls for, either for a fat such as egg yolk or a protein like egg white, understand why it’s important to use room temperature eggs.  For example, my crater cake (the butter cake disaster) rose in the oven and when it cooled, the center sunk in.  Then I realized that I’ve been using eggs straight from the fridge!  Cold egg yolks just won’t mix well or emulsify with your sugar or liquid batter.  Fat and liquid don’t mix folks!  So the trick is to introduce the two at the same temperature so that it doesn’t curdle.  Whew!

As for egg whites, you want these at room temperature in order to get the most volume from them.  Ever read a recipe when it says to beat egg whites until stiff and glossy?  I got the stiff part (volume) but glossy, whaa?  Well, they are referring to how the protein molecules in the egg whites become elastic when you beat them and therefore look glossy.

So there you go, don’t forget to bring those eggs to room temperature before baking that cake!  For more information, visit these articles.  They are very useful.

Baking 911

Eggs from Joy of Baking

My experience with making fondant look like wood June 1, 2009

I’m in the middle of a “crawfish boil” themed cake and decided to make the cake board look like wood from a picnic table.  Taking what I’ve read of how to do this in Elisa Straus’s book, Confetti Cakes, and observing other people’s work, I decided to give it a try.

Here are the materials that I used:

• Marshmallow fondant
• cake board
• Wilton’s cake color in brown
• thin paint brush
• vodka
• cornstarch
• rolling pin

Step 1:  Make the MM fondant – separate into two batches, one plain white and the other brown

Step 2:  Roll each batch into a log.  Then twist the white with the brown. Depending on the size of your cake board, you can roll and twist in sections.

Step 3:  Dust your workspace and rolling pin with cornstarch.  Flatten out with rolling pin.  You will notice as the brown and white fondant flatten, the colors “swirl together almost creating a marble effect.  In fact, if you want a marble effect, you can use this technique!  Have cake board ready with some frosting spread onto it so that rolled fondant will stick to the board.  Trim excess.

Step 4:  Dip paintbrush into the Wilton brown paint and slightly dilute with a little vodka to make the color more translucent, like watercolors.  (You do not want to use water because this will ruin or “melt” your MM fondant.)  Using gentle, long strokes, paint the cake board, making sure each stroke varies in the depth of color.  Have fun with it!  You don’t have to be a Picasso to do this.  Plus, wood can have irregularities and so can your painting strokes.

Step 5:  Let cake board dry overnight.  Viola!  A wooden cake board ready for some cake to sit on top of it!

Fondant wood cake board