On 8/25/2012 7:36 PM, DavidW wrote:
> heyjoe wrote:
>> On Fri, 24 Aug 2012 20:02:27 +1000, DavidW wrote:
>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I'm about to make a chocolate cake and I have a few questions:
>>>
>>> 1. Should a chocolate cake typically contain salt? Watching cooking
>>> shows it seems that just about everything should be seasoned,
>>> according to professional chefs, but there's no salt in the
>>> ingredients. It's a boiled chocolate cake (some ingredients, inc.
>>> water, baking soda boiled and cooled before eggs, flour added). The
>>> butter is listed simply as "butter". Commercial butter is normally
>>> salted to an unknown degree. If I use unsalted butter should salt be
>>> added; if so how much for a standard-sized cake?
>>
>> no comment
>>
>>> 2. If I bake and ice the cake on Monday and keep it in the fridge
>>> will it still be in good shape on Friday? (i.e., no noticeable
>>> degradation).
>>
>> I don't think so. IMO, store the cake at room temperature, make the
>> frosting as fresh as practical. Keep the finished cake at room
>> temperature and HOPE for the best.
>>
>>> 3. I have a vague recollection of asking this before, but there was
>>> no magic solution. The mixture is very wet before the flour is added
>>> and you always get bits of flour that will not mix in. My mother
>>> solved this by using an electric mixer or blender, but I don't think
>>> the cake was as good as when the flour was mixed in gently by hand
>>> (and you put up with a few small flour pockets). Is there another
>>> technique whereby I can mix in the flour evenly by without any
>>> detriment to the cake?
>>
>> I don't have a problem with LITTLE bits of unmixed flour ina
>> cake/pancake/muffin/quickbreaad.
>>
>> The idea is to minimize the development of gluten by just getting the
>> dry ingredients to combine with the wet. This is a technique issue!
>
> I was unaware of the gluten problem. Thanks, and thanks to others who mentioned
> it.
>
>> Without a list of ingredients, it's hard to make specific suggestions,
>> but you might replace up to 1/4 cup of the liquid in the cake (ie.
>> water or milk) with vodka. The idea here is to allow thorough mixing
>> without developing gluten.
>>
>> 'nother idea - hold down the gluten devlopment by substituting cake
>> flour for all purpose flour (rough guess, up to 1/3 cake flour, 2/3
>> all purpose flour).
>
> The flour is just ordinary self-raising flour. I don't know about "cake flour".
> There might be terminology differences between locations. I am in Australia.
>
>> But the real clue is . . . don't overmix your cake batter!
>
> Good. That's what I suspected, but with the pretty watery mixture after the
> cooling that's why I get little spots of unmixed flour. I suppose I could try
> adding the flour before the eggs.
>
>
>
You could also use a sifter to add the flour.