Friday, October 5, 2012

Oceanfront Weddings

Heat and Humidity + Cake = Acid Reflux for this Baker!

 
My staff will tell you that I lay awake at night thinking about timing for delivering wedding cakes.  I load up on Prevacid for the summer.  Full panic ensues when I see a temperature over 80 degrees.
 
A funny thing happened the other day: a Cape Cod summer bride wanted to know why the colors on her cake started to run and a starfish fell off after being outside in the summer for 5 hours.   She seemed disappointed, I felt confused.
 
I thought: what else would you expect to:
-be baked, frosted, stacked on top of one another and weigh 20 pounds, intricately decorated with 100% edible items, travel in a car over the bumpy road, then sit under a tent outisde in the summer heat for 5 hours, serve 150 people, and last but not least NOW taste really really great AND still look absolutely photo shoot-ready PERFECT?
 
Want answers? Just take a look at this video:
 
A few facts:
Buttercream includes butter as an ingredient.
Butter gets soft when stored at room temperature 72 degrees F
Butter completely liquifies at 82.6 degrees F.
The moral of the story: butter melts and that's what makes buttered popcorn taste so good.
Shortening melts at 109 degrees F.
Melted shortening does not taste good.
 
 

Monday, October 1, 2012

Anchors, Anchors, Everywhere!

Anchors, Anchors, Everywhere on every single cake!

I just had to post the gorgeous anchor cakes that we've been creating in the last few months!
From cupcakes in blue to wedding cake in white, we love anchors on any dessert.

Anchor and Nautical Stripe Cupcake in Navy Blue & White

White Wedding Cakes

Cupcake Stand Topper Cake with Anchor and Rope with coordinating Cupcakes with anchors, nautical stripe and ocean details.

Fushia Pink and Coconut Tiered Cake with pearl white anchor

Monday, August 20, 2012


Grand SeaShell Wedding Cake

@ Belle Mer, Newport, Rhode Island


We created this 5 tiered wedding cake for a grand seashell inspired wedding in Newport, Rhode Island.  Eight pounds of edible shells and edible gold coral cover the cake in a heavy cascade.  We custom designed the stand and tablescape for the bride which included a glass table top lifted by glass cubes, the table is covered in edible 'sugar sand' with a monogram and real sea shells.


Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Textured Buttercream Wedding Cake

Textured Buttercream Wedding Cake

Budgets....everyone has one, and we do our best to help all of our brides get the look they want within their budget. 

This cake was created for a bride at Beverly Yacht Club in Marion, Massachusetts and featured a textured pulled star buttercream similar to the Couture Wedding Cake picture at the bottom. 

The bride's budget didn't allow for individual sugar flowers from the original design (super labor intensive and therefore very expensive) so instead we utilized a similar technique in buttercream!

http://simirabinowitzphoto.com

Artisan Bake Shop
South Coast's Finest Pastry Studio
Serving Cape Cod, South Coast, Newport and Bristol RI
508.763.4905

Monday, July 23, 2012

Cake Lingo!

So you book a tasting and you sit down and the designer asks, "So what would you like your wedding cake to look like?  Do you like scrollwork, filigre, quilting, Swiss dots....tell me about your style."  And you think, what the heck is scrollwork? 

Scrollwork and filigre can bring a design from simple to elegant, or even elevate a cake to ornate.  Scrollwork is labor intensive and takes a very steady hand and a designers eye:


Modern "S" Scrolls: fill the entire side of a tier and are uniform, repeating and modern

'C' Scrolls are used to cover the side and top of a tier and are piped in varying sizes to create a pattern which is non-repeating. 

Quilting: is completed on fondant cakes, a tool creates indentations in a diamond pattern.  The cross of the quilting can be filled in with pearls. 

Filigre Scrollwork:  is elegant and flowing,  a classic detail for any design.

Champagne Pearls:  look like bubble in a champagne glass, varying in size from tier to tier, this design is visually appealing and draws your eye to the top of the cake

Swirls & Dots:  whimsical and fresh in design, this type of piping is free-flowing and creates a cake that Alice and the Mad Hatter would love.

Swiss Dots: three tiny dots evenly spaced on the tiers is a classic piped design and can be utlized on formal and informal designs. 

Monday, July 16, 2012

Cape Cod in Cake!

We love seaside cakes! For one reason, they can be so different.  There is classic navy nautical, then there is modern blush tone seaside, and then even tropical beach-- so many options and so little time!


Credit: Corinna Raznikov Photography

 Above: (photo credit: Corinna Raznikov Photography)  Custom Navy and White Classic Nautical Cupcakes and Cake:  anchors & starfish


Above: Sugar Frangipani Flowers with Coral Colored Starfish, Sugar Pearls and White Chocolate Seashells



Blush Tone Starfish and Seashells with Pops of Fushia Hyacinth and Tiny Edible Sugar Diamonds.
 
 
 

Sunday, July 1, 2012


Contemporary Black & White Wedding Cakes


We created this wedding cake display for a black, white and rhinestone themed wedding on the South Coast of Massachusetts.  Believe it or not- these are buttercream frosted (skipping the fondant!).  The bride enjoyed bows, rhinestones and brooches and we used this theme to string from cake to cake for a cohesive design. 

One of the greatest elements of this design is the ability to incorporate 5 different cake flavors!
Rhinestone crusted cake pedestals, in varying heights, were designed by our artist to give each of the cakes the attention they deserved. 


Wednesday, June 27, 2012


Bread.  One of the most coveted foods for humankind.  It can be slathered with peanut butter, used to soak up the remainder of broth in your soup bowl, or enjoyed simply fresh from the oven.

Americans, however, do not appreciate bread for what it is supposed to be. A simple food made of 3-4 ingredients, meant to enjoy, at most, a day after it was baked.  We are programmed to believe that bread is meant to be soft inside and out.  Crusty is not a word that most Americans would like to think about when it comes to purchasing a loaf.

In the United States, bread is taken for granted.  It is left on the counter for a week or more and eaten without thought of its age.  When mold does not appear, due to the huge amount of chemicals and stabilizers, it is continued to be munched on without thought. 

When I first started making bread six years ago, I was proud of my artisanal loaves: caramelized, crusty, hearty, and simple. Much to my surprise Americans saw my bread as: burned, stale bricks.  Customers would purchase a loaf on Saturday, and rant and rave with a Wednesday morning phone call that their bread, which had been left in the bread box was (GASP!) moldy.  I was annoyed, shocked and most of all devastated.  

When did this happen? When did Americans come to see bread as a food with no expiration date, and an unlimited shelf life?

Travel to Spain or France and bread is coveted in its own reusable bag, carried carefully from the bakery and eaten that day.  The following day it is toasted or used as croutons.  One day three it is ground into bread crumbs or tossed to the birds.

I wait each June for the first phone call of the season.  What I call, the moldy bread call.  And each year, without delay the day comes.  At that point I gave up.  I realized it was a futile battle.  Definitely not worth the fight.

These days, my breads are available in my little storefront baked only on Friday and Saturday for a discerning clientele.   Those who understand Good-Old-Fashioned-Bread.  I do not advertise, I do not tell customers that we make bread.  We have a few diehards who come in on Friday at Noon and then again on Saturday morning.  Yes, they ate the whole loaf between those days.


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Sunday May 20, 2012
at

Click Here for More Information

Our fabulously sweet menu will include:

~ Panna Cotta Custard with Strawberry Gelee ~
Wicked Chocolate Pudding
~ Coastal Berry Pie Shots ~
Sweet and Tart Lemon Squares with Raspberry Paint
~ Outrageous Brownie Slabs with Arruda's Farm Coffee Milk ~

Taste of SouthCoast
Sunday, May 20, 2012
12 NOON - 5PM
CUSTOM HOUSE SQUARE
DOWNTOWN NEW BEDFORD


Monday, May 14, 2012

Celebrating the Sea in Cake


The coast and the sea draw inspiration for just about every event on the South Coast and Cape Cod. 

Below, you'll see a few unqiue cakes that we've created to celebrate the beautiful cities by the ocean and our unqiue whaling history. 

All decor is completely edible and handpainted on sugar in edible pen-and-ink by our in-house artist.  These cakes are not only beautiful, but celebratory of the nautical history in Massachusetts. 

Whale Boat and Crew in celebration of the National Historic Whaling Park 15th Anniversary

Cityscape circa 1850. Available in scenes from historic Nantucket and New Bedford Massachusetts


Award-Winning Cakes from the South Coast's Finest Pastry Studio
Web: www.artisanbakeshop.com  Phone: 508-763-4905

Wednesday, May 2, 2012



A Sweet, Sweet Favor


What better way to thank your guests for sharing in your big day than with delicious treats packed into adorable containers!  From S'mores, to Cookies, and even Cake Push Pops- you can wow your guests with a little goodie that fits your style and is delicious, too! 
S'Mores Favor: Tiny Box with all of the fixings.  Available in Classic with Honeymaid Graham Crackers and Hershey Chocolate or Premium with Valhrona Chocoalte, Homemade Graham Crackers and Homemade Marshmallows.
Classic Cookies: Rolled Oat Butter Crunch (shown) or how about our best-selling Oatmeal Raisin Berry.  All packed into a neat sleeve with a custom sticker!

 



Mini Cakes:  Place one at each place setting at the wedding, or give as a gift to each bridesmaid!
The newest trend in sweets CAKE PUSH POPS! Remember those Orange Sherbert Push Pops from the Ice Cream Truck? Well now, these lovelies are layered cake and icing and yummy fillings and can include a custom sticker and ribbon tie!  We can even color coordinate the cake flavors for your wedding.


We look forward to your next event and creating a custom favor to match your style!
Have a Sweet Day,  Meredith

Award-Winning Cakes from the South Coast's Finest Pastry Studio
www.artisanbakeshop.com


Monday, April 30, 2012

Bridesmaid's Mini Cakes

A tiny tiered cake as a Thank You to your Maids, Matrons, and Moms is such a throughtful gesture!


Each cake coordinates to the individuals birth month color or favorite color and can include such fun decorations as a tiny flower, monogram and more!

Packaged in a box with custom ribbon tie and monogram sticker, these cakes can be delivered for the rehearsal dinner or placed in the hotel room as a surprise!


Wednesday, April 18, 2012


Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake Cake Push Pop

You haven't heard of cake push pops?

What!? Ok, well here goes....



Remember those Flintstones Sherbert Push Pops from the school cafeteria and the ice cream truck? Well, we replaced the frozen stuff with cake, filling and icing.  And put it all into a portable treat!
Devilish Chocolate and Vanilla Filled Cake Push Pop



Excited yet?  We are! So yummy, super cute -- and any dessert attached to a stick has credentials in our book!

Skip the traditional cake, bake sale table, dessert bar and go directly to these fun, novelty wedding treats. 

No plates, forks or spoons needed with this wedding dessert trend.
 
Caramel Macchiato Cake Push Pop
Choose any flavor of cake, filling and frosting to coordinate with your day. You can even color coordinate these treats for a bridal shower or even a bachelorette party!

With flavors like Margarita, Pink Champagne, Caramel Macchiato, and Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake- you are sure to be able to please everyone on your list!

Cake Push Pops by: 
Serving Southeastern & South Shore Massaachusetts, Cape Cod, Tiverton, Newport & Bristol RI with award-winning wedding day sweets since 2006.
www.artisanbakeshop.com Ph: 508-763-4905 

Pink Ombre!

If you say ombre - we say YAY!  Here is a fabulous example of an ombre design (one color varying from light to dark on a tiered cake) for a wedding with a pink theme.   From fushia to light bubblegum pink- even the ribbons are edible! Cheers, Meredith

Serving Southeastern & South Shore Massaachusetts, Cape Cod, Tiverton, Newport & Bristol RI with award-winning wedding day sweets since 2006.
www.artisanbakeshop.com Ph: 508-763-4905

 







Monday, April 16, 2012


Wedding Cake Inspiration

Your wedding day reflects your personal style, and so should your wedding day sweets!  White cakes inside and out are no longer the norm; the sky is the limit when it comes to design and flavors. 

Inspiration may come from your dress, the location, or a wedding theme, but in this case inspiration was drawn from the invitation.  Cherry blossoms, and their signature colors: varying pinks and chocolate brown branches were used as a recurring theme for decor and the bride chose to use the flowing branches on her cake for this small intimate affair.  

We love inspiration in any shape or size, and we look forward to seeing your wedding inspiration when you meet with us for a wedding consultation and tasting! Cheers, Meredith

Serving Southeastern & South Shore Massaachusetts, Cape Cod, Tiverton, Newport & Bristol RI with award-winning wedding day sweets since 2006.
  www.artisanbakeshop.com  Ph: 508-763-4905







Friday, March 16, 2012

Check out our Easter Menu!


Easter Menu 2012
 
Order from Easter Menu through Wednesday April 4, 2012
Special Orders Which ARE NOT on the Menu Close Monday April 2, 6:00pm

Place Orders by Email artisanbakeshop@gmail.com (you will receive a confirmation) or Phone: 508-763-4905

Pick-Up on Saturday April 7, 2012: 10:00am-4:00pm

TARTSLemon: 9” Sweet & tangy lemon custard with whipped cream & candied lemon peel. Serves 10. $25

Banana-Berry: 9” tart with a creamy custard filling, fresh raspberries, bananas, & blueberries. Topped with whipped cream, fresh berries & banana chips $25

CUPCAKES:12 Easter Cupcakes: 4 vanilla & 4 chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream, 4 red velvet with cream cheese & fanciful Easter décor. $27.00

FAVORS/GIFTS:Personalized Easter Egg Sugar Cookie: 5” egg cookie with stripes and dots in teal, yellow, orange. Cello bag with ribbon tie. $3.75. Add personalized message/name up to 9 characters

Mini Pastry Tray: $32Premium Select Dark Chocolate Dipped Strawberries, Asst. Petit Fours, Lemon Tarts, Coconut Macaroons, Chocolate Mousse Tarts 30 pieces.

Chocolate Mousse Cups: for Passover. Dark chocolate mousse in cups with whipped cream and chocolate coin décor. Gluten-Free $3 each

Strawberry Charlotte: A ring of ladyfingers layered with Bavarian mousse and fresh strawberries and vanilla cake.
7” Cake. Serves 9-12. $30

Chocolate Mousse Pie: Dark chocolate mousse in a ganache glazed chocolate crust, with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Serves 8. $18

Carrot Cake: 7” round double layer with fresh carrots, pineapple, coconut & toasted nuts with cream cheese icing. Serves 12-14. $34

9” Pies:
Wild Blueberry $15.50
Key Lime $18.00


9” Quiche: $15.50
Bacon Parmesan
Maple Sausage & Roasted Red Peppers
Cheddar Cheese & Herb


Rolls:
$3.00/dozen. Sold in full dozens only
1 dozen Soft Buttermilk
1 dozen Multigrain
1 dozen Chewy Ciabatta

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

new! Cake Push-Pops!

Available in any cake flavor & filling choice with a choice of vanilla or chocolate buttercream frosting. 

How about strawberry shortcake for July 4th!
How about Chocolate cake with Bailey's Irish Cream for a Bachelorette bash!

Add a gerbera daisy, a cute ribbon tie!

We love Cake Push Pops!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

A Cake Designed for Your Wedding Day 

I pride myself on the Perfect Combination of Style, Taste and Service!

First Contact
Our wedding package includes lots of frequently asked questions, price ranges and lots of other information.  If you send us specific pictures, I may be able to send pricing, but we recommend coming in for an appointment-or via Skype or phone-so we can talk about your vision, and what is important to you about wedding day- and most importantly your cake!


Initial Meeting
Make an appointment- in-person, or phone- we’ll talk about design, options, different coverings- like fondant vs. buttercream, and answer all of your questions.   I’ll send you home with a complete packet of sketches, prices, and delivery information.


Are we a good fit?
If you enjoyed the samples and are excited about the possibility of working together, reserve your date by sending  a deposit

The Collaboration
Sometimes you’ll need a second meeting at the shop to focus on your cake design and details, Together we will capture the look and feel of your wedding day- and develop a flavorful dessert to be proud of.


Counting Down to the BIG DAY
20 days prior to the big day the number of guests will be finalized- along with any little details- fresh flowers, cake plates/stands, all the little details. 10 days prior the final payment is due.


A No-Worries Wedding Day
Check us off your to do list. We will coordinate anything that relates to a successful delivery and set-up including contacting the florist, the hotel or the caterer. Be confident that on your wedding day you do not need to worry about the details of the cake, Artisan Bake Shop will manage everything for you.

I look forward to seeing you soon to design the cake of your dream!
-Meredith


Monday, January 30, 2012


Kids!Cupcakes!Class!  @ Artisan Bake Shop
Artisan Bake Shop   265 Walnut Plain Road   Rochester, MA 02770

Our most popular event!   Kids or Teen Classes!  $27.00 per child
-One-hour class includes one dozen cupcakes that your kids decorate with fun colored buttercream and learn how to make lots of decorations from fondant and then we box up the dozen and you take them home!  
-Up to 8 children per class, space is limited, you are welcome to stay with your child, but our shop is very small. 
-Decorating is both structured and free-time, pre-made decorations available for the little kids too!   
-One dozen cupcakes: flavors are fun and kid friendly.  No nuts!

Kids! Ages 5-12: School Vacation Dates:

1.Monday February 20, 2012.  1:00pm-2:00pm                      2.Monday February 20, 2012.  3:30pm-4:30pm         
or
3.Tuesday February 21, 2012.  1:00pm-2:00pm                      4.Tuesday February 21, 2012.  3:30pm-4:30pm
or
5.Monday April 16, 2012.  1:00pm-2:00pm                             6.Monday April 16, 2012.  3:30pm-4:30pm
or
7.Tuesday April 17, 2012.  1:00pm-2:00pm                             8.Tuesday April 17, 2012.  3:30pm-4:30pm                           
Teen! Ages 13-18: School Vacation Dates:

9.Tuesday February 21, 2012.  11:00am-Noon
or
10.Tuesday April 17, 2012.  11:00am-Noon 

 - - - - cut here- - - - - - - - - - - cut here- - - - - - - - - - -cut here - - - - - - - -cut here - -

Kids!Cupcakes!Class!    ONE FORM PER CHILD!  $27.00 per child per class

Please call/email ahead to ensure dates/times are available, space is limited.   Then we’ll give you more information on how to sign up! Phone: 508-763-4905  or  artisanbakeshop@gmail.com

Parent/Guardian Name (first/last):____________________________________Phone:_____-_______-_______

Your Email Address:_________________________________Child’s First Name:________________Age:____

Kids! Ages 5-12: School Vacation Dates: (check date with date which is applicable) $27/ 1-hour class.
OMonday February 20, 2012.  1:00pm-2:00pm                   OMonday February 20, 2012.  3:30pm-4:30pm      
OTuesday February 21, 2012.  1:00pm-2:00pm                   OTuesday February 21, 2012.  3:30pm-4:30pm
OMonday April 16, 2012.  1:00pm-2:00pm                                 OMonday April 16, 2012.  3:30pm-4:30pm
OTuesday April 17, 2012.  1:00pm-2:00pm                                 OTuesday April 17, 2012.  3:30pm-4:30pm                                    
Teen! Ages 13-18: School Vacation Dates: $27/ 1-hour class.
OTuesday February 21, 2012.  11:00am-Noon                    OTuesday April 17, 2012.  11:00am-Noon 
$27.00 per child per class.  Paid:   YES   NO    Check ___#______        Cash ____

Mailing Address & Class Location:  Please call/email ahead to ensure dates/times are available, space is limited.   Then we’ll give you more information on how to sign up! Phone: 508-763-4905  or  artisanbakeshop@gmail.com

Artisan Bake Shop         265 Walnut Plain Road               Rochester, MA 02770

Thursday, January 26, 2012

The Ins and Outs of Cake
There’s really not hard to make good cake. Ok, I’m not going to lie- all of our scratch recipes are always being tested and improved upon. But its not like our recipes are a mystery. So then why does every grocery store and big boy Boston bakery make a mediocre cake (cake part- and sometimes the decorating ;-) )

The cake and frosting, when it’s really good, takes much better ingredients and YES lots more time! This means less profit and more expensive cake all the way around.

The Life of Cake

Most people think: how hard is it to make a cake for a wedding or big party?! I make box cupcakes all the time. But put it into this prospective: restaurants have menus and each person receives a different meal, but with cake: 1 cakes serves EVERYONE from the 3 year old to the NYC Foodie Connoisseur who eats at Le Bernadin two times per week! Now, because of the complexity we have to prepare this over 3 days. Also, once the cake part is stacked, syruped and buttercreamed, it will not be seen nor heard from again until it is sliced 24-48 hours later. THEN it travels up to several hundred miles to be left with a stranger who may or may not properly handle it in the several hours before they may or may not serve it properly or promptly. Finally, after all of this, the cake will be eaten by everyone other than the people responsible for making sure it tasted good.

 
How can you possibly have any semblance of quality control in a situation like that?

“Fine” Art

The truth is that for most bakeries, they simply can’t. Great cake, just like most things of high quality, intricacy and detail, is also incredibly fragile. This fragility applies not only to the physical structure and appearance of the cake, but also to the cake’s taste and texture.


So what’s a baker to do? There are two main options:

1. Keep making the absolute best and most uncompromisingly awesome cake you can, while also expecting that there are things out of your control.

o This is the route that we’ve chosen to take. We make the absolute best looking and tasting cake we can and accept the consequences. Of course this does not mean that we are reckless in our decisions. When we build a cake, it’s going to stand up. And when we bake a cake it’s going to taste good. HOWEVER, what it does mean is that our cakes are not idiot proof. If you don’t transport the cake with care, it will break. And just as important, if you don’t follow our handling and serving instructions, your cake wont’ taste as good.

2. Put out a mediocre product that your customer can’t screw up.

o Want your cake to stay moist forever? –>Load it up with oil. Want the buttercream to always stay soft and sweet -even if you refrigerate it? –>Don’t make it with butter.

Unfortunately, both of these options are compromises between relying on your customers intelligence to achieve consistency, and watering (oiling) down your product to do the same. For this, and many reasons, we strive harder than any other company I know to educate our customers about what goes into making a good cake, and what the pitfalls may be.

What do you mean “Dry” Cake?


The most common complaint we (and almost every bakery) gets is that a customer’s cake is “dry”. This is also the most tragic compliant, because, as it is almost entirely devoid of meaning, there’s almost no way for us to know what you’re trying to tell us, or how to take corrective action. You might as well just say that you didn’t like it, because from a troubleshooting standpoint it provides the same degree of detail. This is because the term “dry” is a comparison operator, and often as a customer you have not much to compare it to.

“Dry” meaning: I was actually expecting this to taste deep-fat-fried.

If you were to compare our cake to a cake that you buy at Costco it will indeed be “dry.” In fact, that’s the entire point. We make high quality food, and one of the traits of high quality food is that it’s not greasy. Greasy food will always be perceived as more moist than well cooked food that has natural moisture (of the H20 variety).

Thus, when a customer tells us that they don’t like the cake because it isn’t: gooey, silky, slick, wet, or mushy; what they actually mean is that the cake wasn’t as greasy as they had expected, because none of those words should ever be used to described well-made cake.

“Dry” meaning: HEY Guess WHAT?!
There is cake in my buttercream!
There is another type of customer we’ve encountered is the person who really likes our cupcakes but loathes our cakes. For the longest time we were truly baffled by this complaint. Why on earth would you think that our cupcakes are moist and delicious (which are made from our excess cake batter, have far greater air exposure, and are often on the shelf longer) but complain about the cake being dry? It’s the same stuff as the cupcakes, only fresher! Yet we have almost never gotten a complaint about dry cupcakes, only dry cakes. As it turns out, the difference has nothing to do with cake. People just like frosting, and when they don’t get as much as they want it tastes dry to them. This complaint applies to things beyond bakeries as well. I once saw someone write a bad review about dry BBQ. What?

“Dry” meaning: Cold, hard and crumbly.

We make our cake with butter. We also make our buttercream with butter. While it seems like a no brainer, very few bakeries do this, and the reason they don’t is because EVERYONE insists on refrigerating their cakes. When you refrigerate butter, unlike oil or fat, butter gets hard. When butter gets hard it seals away it’s moisture and all you taste are the dry, floury, grainy parts of your cake. A good way to check if your cake is too cold is if your buttercream is hard. It should be light and whippy, if not just give it more time to come back to room temperature before chowing down.
“Dry” meaning: The waitstaff sliced up the cake 3 hours ago.

This type of dry is technically known as “stale.” Most people think that staleness is a factor of elapsed time since baking. Despite the numerous “baked fresh daily” signs polluting Dunkin’ Doughnuts coffee shops, time plays no factor in staleness or freshness. Rather, what is actually important is air exposure.

Remember that time your kid forgot to retie the bread bag and you found it two hours later completely stale? It was stale because it received A LOT of air exposure in a short time. Similarly, that same loaf of bread, if it sits sealed away in that plastic bag will likely still get just as hard after about 2-3 weeks. In this case the bread has received a little air exposure, but over the corse of a long time. Equal amounts of air exposure = equal amounts of staleness.

In fact, if you could create some type of super-duper, evaporation proof, air containment case you could theoretically keep a baked good from never going stale –although it would probably get moldy long before you had the chance to check it for staleness. In any case, once your cake is sliced, you have about 15-30 minutes to stick it in your mouth before it starts getting noticeably stale.

“Dry” meaning: Over-baked.

If this happens then it’s totally our fault. However, this would never happen, as each layer of cake goes through at least two if not three sets of hands before completion AND they get brushed with vanilla bean sugar syrup for extra flavor and moistness. If it looks, feels, or tastes over-baked, or appears to have gotten too much air exposure, it is thrown out- no matter what. Also, when we put our cakes together, we cut each layer in half, and trim off the tops. The remnants from every single layer of cake gets tasted as its assembled to make sure that it’s perfect. If not, we re-bake it.

“Dry” meaning: THERE ARE NO OTHER MEANINGS.

If you think your cake is dry it is because of one of the afore mentioned reasons. You were either disappointed with the fat/oil content, didn’t get enough buttercream (fat content again), ate it cold, had too much air exposure, or it was over baked. Those are the only things. There are no other things.

Well, actually, there are a few more things.

What it boils down to is fat. When people complain about cake being dry they’re almost always complaining about a lack of fat, or some type of mishandling caused by the constraints of not loading the cake up with fat. But what goes unmentioned is that there is a whole lot more to cake than simply fat. There is flavor, and texture, and structure, and aroma, and beauty. No one ever complains about these other things. They only complain about not getting their fat. Which is sad. Because in response so many bakeries and grocery stores have chosen to just jack up the quantity of fat in their cakes in hopes of alleviating all their problems. This appeases customers, idiot proofs your product, and stops a lot of the complaints, but it also means that all the other things that make cake truly enjoyable get buried beneath gobs of grease, and in the end fewer and fewer people get to enjoy really good cake.

No matter what: Get some cake.

adapted from: Amanda Oakleaf Cakes

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails