June 9, 2010
Episode 4-2
Vanilla Chiffon Genoise Cake
This was a really smooth episode which I will confess – surprised me slightly. It’s no mystery that cake making isn’t one of my strongest points but at the same time I’m willing to give it my all to make sure it gets done. Sure I’ve had to remake cakes or run out and get a box mix because my cake fell and I didn’t have time to start completely over but the point of the matter is I never gave up. And that’s what I hope you gain from this episode: Don’t just give up.
Cake making is frustrating because there are a lot of areas you can mess up and unfortunately you won’t know how you’re doing until your cake falls or the meringue doesn’t whip up but there is a way to fix just about anything and if you take your time and think things through you may be able to avoid most mistakes.
Of course even when I took my time to make this cake I still had a pretty basic error: I over baked my cake and burnt the bottom slightly. Overbaking is a lot easier, in my opinion, to fix than a cake that’s been under baked. Over baking will result in it a dryer, possibly tougher, cake that may have a scorched flavor especially if you have a burnt bottom like my cake layers do. I’ll show you how to fix that when we decorate that cakes but I’ll explain it to you now:
1. Cut off the offending burnt areas
2. Add plenty of simple syrup to add moisture and sweetness back into the cake – just don’t go overboard and have water rushing out of your cake
3. Ice it! The icing will add flavor and sweetness and will help mask the burnt bitterness
4. Don’t tell anybody and if anyone notices tell them it was on purpose! I once heard that Julia Child said something like mistakes will happen in the kitchen – but there’s no reason to point it out to everybody. If it still tastes great then… what mistake? Just do your best with what you have, have a back up plan ready if necessary, and just try again next time.
To avoid burning the bottom again I could try some of the following tricks:
1. Double pan the inverted sheetpan that I put in the oven
2. Take the inverted sheetpan out all together – it may have actually concentrated the heat better than if the cakes were just sitting on the racks alone (but make sure to put a sheet pan on the rack underneath the cakes to catch any batter that may overflow from the pans)
3. Double pan the cake pans themselves – I have four cake pans that all fit into each other
4. Reduce the temperature ever so slightly to 345 or 350 degrees.
If anything like this ever happens to you just make a note of it directly on the recipe and just try something different next time and see how it works. Baking is an experiment so consider mistakes a learning experience!
By the way, you may have noticed I said meringue instead of chiffon – they are pretty much the same thing. They are both whipped to hold air and they are both made with egg whites. I have heard some chefs explain the differences as they believe it:
1. A chiffon doesn’t have any sugar added to it while a meringue does
2. A meringue is a specific ratio while a chiffon isn’t (or vice-versa) effectively canceling out explanation number 1
To me, added volume is added volume : )
Anyway, enjoy the videos below (only two this time!) and here’s the recipe for the Vanilla Chiffon Genoise Cake
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i am student,n i live in malaysia, i have exam on 12.oct.2011..i take a pastry and bakery course…but i dont know how to make a plateing on my procuct to look simple but nice(blueberry cake),,,would u give me some suggestion?
When you’re starting out in school you should focus mostly on very simplistic and bare minimal plate-ups just because you don’t want to run out of time making a presentation and because you are very limited to what you can make. Focus on what you’ve learned so far in the class, as well as in other classes and stick with those products. Introducing a new product in an exam isn’t a good idea – but using a product from a different class does look well.
Ask your professor for tips or some one-on-one help. Your chef will be able to tell you what he’s looking for, what trends to look at for inspiration, and what other students in the past have done. Ask other students who have taken that class for ideas. Your colleagues are your best source of inspiration.
Try to make the dessert “different” by changing it slightly. One trend that is pretty big is cutting cake into different shapes like cylinders and then sticking a cookie or some bubble sugar into the side of it to build height. The fact you are using a different shape makes the dessert so unique even though nothing else has really changed. Sometimes just cutting the cake into a different shape is enough to inspire the rest of the components.
A successful plated dessert usually has a least one sauce. Blueberries go well with lemon and vanilla flavors but don’t hesitate to try to bring in a new flavor. Creme anglais is very easy to flavor with different kinds of tea – like Earl Grey or Jasmine – and really bring the complexity and sophistication of your dessert up. Be sure not to put too many complex flavors or it’ll be too distracting but still think about using tea. Tea and blueberry muffins anyone?
Be sure to check out my page on plate dessert designs under the techniques category. I pretty much retyped my senior thesis there and it gives a lot of good ideas for plated dessert designs. Just remember, the exam is testing what you’ve learned in class. If (for example) your chef says that every plated dessert needs 2 sauces, then you better use 2 sauces or he might think you weren’t paying attention.
Good luck and thanks for commenting!
Hello the Aubergine Chef
Thank you for uploading your videos and your recipes. Love your work!
I tried this vanilla chiffon cake recipe a few times, sometimes I made it orange flavor instead; but I am having some problems making this cake and that I have no idea how to fix it. I hope you are able to give me some tips.
My problem with the cake is that, when it first comes out from the oven, it is spongy, but when it gets cooler like after 20 minutes, it falls and shrinks. I did whip the egg white to stiff or frothy stage that it will not fall even if I over turn the bowl. Any tips or suggestions on how to fix this problem?
Alicia,
It sounds like you’re making a strong meringue so that doesn’t seem to be the problem. Off the top of my head the only thing I can think of is that it is that it might be under baked.
Sometimes with other cakes if you put in too much air into the batter it can make cakes very delicate and cause them to collapse but because this recipe is so dependent on the meringue I really don’t think that could be the issue.
Another possible issue is that maybe you’re over folding the meringue in at the end. Still with the yolks and whites being whipped up as much as they are there should still be plenty of structure.
Try baking the cake for an extra 5-10 minutes and see how that works. You can also try lowering the temperature of the oven. That will help make sure the cake is more thoroughly and evenly baked. Unfortunately, everybody’s oven works a little bit differently so you have to really adjust recipes to your oven.
I wish I could be of more help! Please let me know if you’re able to solve your cake problem. There are probably many others who have similar issues and I’d like to share your solution with them : ) Please feel free to contact me again if you need more help.
Thank you for your quick reply. I will try bake it longer the next time I make cakes, and I will let you know how it turns out. Another question, you mentioned that I might be over folding in the end, what is considered as over folding?
Not a problem! I try to be available to my fans and viewers. Over folding is when you beat out all the air you whipped in the product. You basically deflate it. When you deflate it there are fewer air cells available to expand the cake so that makes for a denser – possibly weaker – cake.