Cooking For Engineers

[Dilbert]

cut when too hot?

cake doughs need a bit of cooling for the structure to firm up.

[silanea]

That might be the solution. After one night's rest the pieces I "cut" now have taken more or less solid shape and hold together. Thank you!

[hazeleyes]

Almost any cake should be cooled for quite a long time after baking before being cut, at least for an hour, or until it has reached room temperature. Some recipes indicate a 5-minutes rest in the pan after baking and then turning the cake out of the baking pan onto a rack to cool, others are cooled in the pan. Certain chemical changes having to do with flavor are completed during the cooling process. This is true of most yeast breads as well. None of which means that the products can't be cut and eaten hot from the oven, but only that the product doesn't reach its full flavor and texture potential until it's thoroughly cooled. :-)

I love this site.

[Katie]

Can I use a pan of mini muffin cups instead of the large rectangular pan?

[concerned citizen]

Absolutely, they wont dome like a more airy batter, but you can always bake things in smaller portions.

Just make sure that the individual cups all have adequate ventilation to ensure consistent baking.

If your not using paper, butter then flour.

[L-J]

I've just spent an hour or so browsing the site and have come away with 3 solid recipes so far. The porterhouse steak, the english toffee and this. I think my sunday morning breakfast is going to include coffee cake!

L-J