So, I'm working on menu items for the graduation reception for my daughter. I am preparing as much as I can ahead of time and freezing. I figure that if I do at least one thing toward the reception each day, I should be able to put this together as much from scratch as possible, without fully exhausting myself. The other day, I baked the cake part of a quarter sheet carrot cake and two dozen cream puffs (using the recipe in this post, but making 24 cream puffs instead of the recipe's yield of 12-15). I stashed both in my freezer. I'll frost the cake and fill the cream puffs the morning of the reception.
I was pricing sheet cakes at WinCo the other morning. Their quarter sheet carrot cakes begin at $19.98. By baking my own cake from scratch, I believe that I will save at least $12, and I think it will taste much better.
I wanted to make my cake look as much like a bakery cake as I could, so that meant taking it out of the pan to frost the sides as well as the top. I baked the layers in a 9 X 13-inch rectangular pyrex baker. If you've ever tried to get an entire cake out of an extra large pan, you know that keeping it from cracking is a bit tricky. I followed a trick of my mother's and lined the baker with waxed paper.
My mother would grease and flour the sides and bottom of the baker, then line it with waxed paper, using one sheet across the length of the pan and another across the width. There would be overhang on all four sides. After lining the pan, she would brush oil lightly on the waxed paper, to ensure the cake would release without pitting. She allowed the cake to cool for 15 minutes in the pan on a rack. After this brief cooling, she would lift the cake out of the pan, using the overhang on the long ends as handles. After another 10 minutes of cooling, the cake would be carefully turned onto a large rack, and the waxed paper would be peeled off. I can tell you, this worked like a charm for me. I was able to get both layers out of the large baker without sticking to the pan or developing cracks.
Monday, May 27, 2019
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