Q: I’ve been baking cakes, bars, and cookies for sale for several years now, and these include fruitcake and rum cake. Last Christmas, I received some fruitcakes and a rum cake and they were not only yummy but also picture-perfect. The fruitcakes were decorated with more fruits and nuts on top and they were shiny. The rum cake was shiny as well. How can I come up with these results? I would really like to improve the appearance of my products. Thank you and more power to both of you. (Joie Santamaria of Laguna)

Adoree: As we have already mentioned before, fruitcakes and rum cakes, being perennial gifts for the holidays, will surely grace our tables, even if we are bakers ourselves. I guess a lot of our friends just didn’t have the time to think of other gifts to give us. Fruitcakes are usually decorated with whatever fruits and nuts have been used in the cake itself. It is a good idea to arrange them in attractive patterns. Fruits to be used for decorating the cake are not supposed to be put in prior to baking because they will only sink into the batter. It is better to either decorate the top when the cake is almost done baking or after it is baked.

First, when the fruitcake is almost baked, the appearance of the batter will still be soft on top but it will already have risen and will have structure. Pull out the fruitcake towards the oven door and arrange the fruits for décor on top. Do this quickly, then push back the cake and continue baking until done. You may also decorate the top after the fruitcake is baked, after the cake has been brushed or laced with brandy. To achieve the shiny appearance, brush the cake with an apricot glaze just before packing it.

You can make this glaze by heating some apricot preserve with a little water until the preserve liquefies. Brush the cake with the glaze and arrange the fruits and nuts on top, then also brush the fruits and nuts with the glaze. You may also do this with fruitcakes that were decorated while baking. Again, just brush on the glaze before packing the fruitcake. As for rum cakes, just add butter into the rum glaze that you will lace the cake with.

Jun Jun: I have a different method of decorating my fruitcakes, assuming I have the energy to make them. I just put in the batter and decorate the top. Don’t put in too many glazed fruits and the nuts since the more you put in, the higher your cost will be. I find that removing the cake in the middle of baking will actually disperse the air in it. Real fruitcake must have plenty of glazed fruits and nuts in it, so whatever you put in will never sick to the bottom. To achieve the shiny color, it is brushed with corn syrup or glucose. You can also do this with other baked goodies that you want to look shiny and appealing.

As for rum cakes, it is quite important that the bundt pan it is placed in is greased with just enough shortening and sprinkled with little flour. The other step to take into consideration is to remove the cake around five minutes after it is baked. The shine and the beauty will come from the syrup that is brushed on it.

Q: Greetings, Chefs Jun Jun and Adoree! Whenever I make a butter cake, it always ends up with a mound in the center. What can I do to prevent this from happening again? (Marijo Cerdena of Makati City)

Adoree: If you are going to put frosting on your butter cake, then go ahead and just trim off the mound with a serrated knife. If not, then you’ll have to do something about your recipe. The most common reason for this is that your oven temperature may be quite high. You can regulate this by reducing the oven temperature by 25 F. It will now take the cake longer to bake but because the oven temperature is lower, the gentler heat will help make the cake rise evenly.

Jun Jun: My darling Marijo, I think that, in addition to having an overly hot oven, there is something wrong with your recipe, or you may not have mixed your batter very well. I will gladly fix the recipe for you but I think you use too much flour. By the way, I have a feeling that you may have over-mixed the batter after you added the eggs, resulting in the sudden rise of the crust.

Q: When do we use brown paper, waxed paper, greaseproof paper, parchment paper, and aluminum foil for lining baking pans? Can we use them interchangeably? (Janice Sebastian of Antipolo)

Adoree: Parchment and greaseproof paper are the same. They come in handy for almost any baked product because few baked products will stick to the pan when lined with either of the two. Some bakers, wanting to bring down costs, use brown paper to line their pans. You can only do this with cakes that are not delicate (i.e., butter cakes and coffee cakes), such as fruitcakes and carrot cakes. However, there is still a need for you to grease the pan as well as the brown paper to ensure the cake does not stick.

Aluminum foil is only good for lining pans for making bar cookies or meringues (like sans rival) that are high in sugar content. It is not advisable to use waxed paper in baking because they give off a burnt odor when baked.

Jun Jun: Aluminum foil is generally used for baked products with a lot of invert sugar. I don’t like using wax paper since the wax melts when heated and is absorbed by the baked product, making it taste funny. Parchment is so expensive.

Greaseproof paper here is not really greaseproof; hehehe, bakers know this. Brown paper can actually be used but it has some fibers that can attach to the product, making it unappetizing. Baking paper is best to use, and is the most practical because it is readily available here. Have some on hand at all times.

Q: I tried making doughnuts at home. I dusted them with powdered sugar but after a while, the powdered sugar started to melt and liquefy especially after I refrigerated them. How come this does not happen to doughnuts sold in the stores? (Mariz Carpio of Novaliches)

Adoree: Mariz, commercially produced doughnuts do not use ordinary powdered sugar for dusting. They use institutional mixes that look and taste like powdered sugar but does not melt like it. Just check the different baking supplies stores for the availability of this product.

Jun Jun: Actually it really is an institutional mix but you can still make it at home. My method, which I learned from my guru, Tita Maur, is to mix powdered sugar with a little cornstarch. This will give you the same effect.