Cookies, Candies and Cakes Oh my!

The 3 C’s, a pastry chef’s delight. When was the last time you walked into a bakery, not one that is in your grocery store, but an actual bakery? When I was growing up there was a bakery just around the corner, Adele’s Bakery it wasn’t very big but the aromas you could smell before you walked in the door were heavenly. It always looked like the shelves were full of cookies, candies both hard and soft and some of the most beautiful cakes. They weren’t wedding cakes, or mass produced birthday cakes, they were celebration cakes. You never saw a sheet cake in this bakery, I am not even sure if you could order one, but each cake was three layers and filled with some of the most wonderful fillings.

So today let’s make a celebration cake, we will celebrate life, we will make it simple yellow and white. Two different cakes and yet the only difference in ingredients are one uses the yolks and the other the egg whites. Let’s get our recipe ingredients together (that way we know we have the right amount of everything):

White Cake                                                    Yellow Cake

1.5 oz.   Egg Whites                                       1.25 oz. Yolks

2.75 oz. Milk                                                  2.75 oz.  Milk 

.11 oz.   Vanilla                                               .11 oz.    Vanilla

3.5 oz.    Cake flour                                        3.5 oz.    Cake flour

3.5 oz.    Sugar                                                3.5 oz.    Sugar

.26 oz.    Baking Powder                                .26 oz.    Baking Powder

.05 oz.    Salt                                                   .05 oz.    Salt

2 oz.       Butter, small pieces                          2 oz.       Butter, cut into small pieces

Directions

      1.      Put all the dry ingredients into the bowl with a paddle attachment turn mixer on low and let mix for about 3 minutes.

      2.      Add the butter, eggs, milk and vanilla mix on medium speed until no lumps appear. This may take a few minutes.

      3.      Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°, spray and parchment paper your pan or pans. One recipe will fill an 8 x 2 round pan.

      4.      Bake until middle springs back at touch or insert a toothpick and it comes out clean. Let cool in pan for about 10 minutes and then let it cool completely on a rack.

The fillings for cakes can have anything you like, if you want a lemon custard filling or something with more texture maybe a fruit and nut filling. Make your favorite filling, cut the cake in half so you have approximately 1” of cake on the top and on the bottom. Fill and frost if you like, frostings are easy to make (just remember if you are using powdered sugar, ALWAYS sift the sugar). If you want to top your cake with whipped cream, make sure you top it right before serving because refrigeration speeds the staling process.

I hope you bake and celebrate and as always, Enjoy!