We have received quite a number of letters asking if Adoree and I answer simple baking questions. My answer to this is, of course we do.  All letters are answered given the topic for the week. We are printing those questions for our column today.

Hi! When I say I will make a chocolate cake, is it sponge or chiffon cake?  What type of cake is a chocolate cake?  (Lizza of Mandaluyong)

Jun Jun: There are quite a number of concerns regarding this dilemma that most homeowners or bakers would like to clear out, that’s why it is best to answer it as clearly as possible. A chocolate cake is always a type or a form of butter cake, where the butter and sugar are creamed for five minutes; eggs are added one at a time together with chocolate or cocoa in a liquid, then the dry ingredients. This is the basic method for a butter cake, which texture is dense and a bit heavier than most other cakes. Having a moist chocolate is not really because of a particular recipe but because of the quantities of the different ingredients. Chiffon and sponge cakes are foam cakes, meaning they have a big quantity of eggs that are beaten until very airy. These cakes are lighter in texture, fluffy in appearance, and the crumb is very open. You can see formed and baked bubbles when you slice a cake. There are chocolate chiffon and sponge cakes in the market but their textures are very light and soft, like a mamon that doesn’t look dense. Also, most, if not all, usually do not possess a very dark brown color. I hope Lizza that this answers your question. 

Adoree: Usually, the term’chocolate cake’ is used to pertain to butter-based chocolate cake. To make this, butter is first creamed with sugar, then eggs are added, followed by the dry ingredients and the rest of the liquid ingredients. For chocolate chiffon cakes, the word ‘chiffon’ is usually mentioned so there should be no confusion.

Do we really have to add the eggs one at a time? I make a simple cookie recipe and it doesn’t say in the procedure to put the eggs one at a time. What should I follow?  (Loribelle of Quezon City)

Jun Jun: If you add the eggs all at once, the mixing time is longer than adding the eggs one at a time. Also, it will be harder for your base to accept two or more eggs than just one addition of egg. Take into consideration that the mixture must bind well together before any other ingredient is added. In addition, when mixing in eggs, you also incorporate a lot of air which some recipes do not require. At times when there is too much air in the mixture, the baked product you are making tends to become so big with nothing inside the space but air; this causes it to collapse. Learn and master this method; it will save you from a lot of mistakes. 

Adoree: Adding the eggs one at a time will make it easier for the mixture to absorb the egg so you end up making the process shorter rather than dumping all the eggs all together.

With regards to the sifting of the flour, should it be done at all times even it is not written in the recipe’s procedure? (Edna of Quezon City)

Jun Jun: There are a lot of answers to your questions but a basic premise is flour is always presifted before it is packaged for selling. Sifting it incorporates air into the flour but it is not that much. Flour that has been sitting in your pantry for some time should be sifted again. If the flour is mixed with other dry ingredients like salt or baking powder, it is still best to sift it so that the other ingredients are equally distributed into it. Some recipes do not require sifting since the baked product result is usually something dense but if you are not sure if your flour is clean, meaning free from other foreign materials, then please go ahead and sift it. Wiggles are usually  present in the flour if it has not been used for a long time. 

Adoree: Edna, sifting the flour after measuring it can always be done since this is beneficial to your end product. However, this is not the case before measuring. If the recipe states one cup sifted flour, you have to sift first before measuring. If the recipe states one cup flour, sifted, you have to measure first before sifting.

Should milk be cold when asked for in a recipe for cakes? How about water? (Cherry Mae of Pasig City)

Jun Jun: Not necessarily cold, unless written in the recipe, but of course it should be new and unspoiled. Refrigerated milk that has been stored for longer than a week, even chilled, can be spoiled already.  Make sure to taste the milk before using.  Sometimes, when the milk is too cold it causes your mixture to curdle since all the other ingredients are at room temperature.  Just try to slowly mix it in until you get a smooth and even mixture. 

Adoree: All ingredients have to be used at room temperature except for butter, which is usually used chilled, especially for creaming.

What’s the difference between bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate? Can their use be interchanged? (Victoria of Makati)

Jun Jun: These are not the same chocolates. The unsweetened chocolate has no sugar and is very very bitter and very dark in color; bittersweet has sugar and some milk solids to lessen the bitter taste as well as to lighten the color. Unsweetened chocolate is usually used for baked products where a lot of sugar is added and color is a big factor for the final product. 

Adoree: Unsweetened chocolate is pure cocoa mass while bittersweet chocolate has some sugar in it which makes it sweeter. They cannot be used interchangeably because of the absence of sugar in the unsweetened chocolate.