Julie - 22 October 2009 09:53 AM

jessjose - 22 October 2009 08:35 AM

Julie, if I play around with baking powder, is there a formula to follow?  This cake is from the RHC Marble Velvet cake and it calls for 2 teaspoons baking powder (don’t have the book with me right now but I think that’s what it is).  You think 1 1/2 tsp will work?

Jess, there probably is a formula, and you’d think I would know it- but I don’t.  In general, the greater the distance between sides/ the greater the surface area, the lower the amount (butter cakes only).  Switching to a smaller pan (like changing a 9x2 layer cake to a loaf or 6C bundt) could mean an increase if you still want a flat top, except that most of the smaller pans look good with rounded tops (cupcakes, loafs). 

Matthew says that theory will get you in the right ballpark, but then practice cakes are necessary to fine-tune the formula, and I believe him. 

By using the heat core, you have effectively cut the distance between the sides in half, and used a stronger flour, so I wouldn’t add in a third adjustment if you’re happy with the texture.

If you’re feeling ambitious, you could figure out how much baking powder the downy yellow uses per 100g of batter at different pan sizes (using the back of the Cake Bible), and that would give you a starting point.

Julie, that is interesting.  I may have to put on my mad scientist hat sometime to play around with this.  For now, I think the two adjustments do work.  The texture and structure is much, much better than the first test and the result is a cake that I can work on and decorate.  I don’t think I’ll do another test cake since I already fed both people in my office and my partner’s office with Marble Cake the last couple of days!

Thanks again!

Jess

Jess - I like the cake with the hole in the center . Just catching up with blog reading and stumbled upon this post. Glad to read about your experiments Jess.

Jess, I was tempted to go at the back of the book myself, but today was my day to make caramel silk meringue buttercream (my absolute favorite bc), and it definitely takes some time!  So no mad scientist for me today…

Julie - 22 October 2009 09:53 AM

jessjose - 22 October 2009 08:35 AM

Julie, if I play around with baking powder, is there a formula to follow?  This cake is from the RHC Marble Velvet cake and it calls for 2 teaspoons baking powder (don’t have the book with me right now but I think that’s what it is).  You think 1 1/2 tsp will work?

Jess, there probably is a formula, and you’d think I would know it- but I don’t.  In general, the greater the distance between sides/ the greater the surface area, the lower the amount (butter cakes only).  Switching to a smaller pan (like changing a 9x2 layer cake to a loaf or 6C bundt) could mean an increase if you still want a flat top, except that most of the smaller pans look good with rounded tops (cupcakes, loafs). 

Matthew says that theory will get you in the right ballpark, but then practice cakes are necessary to fine-tune the formula, and I believe him. 

By using the heat core, you have effectively cut the distance between the sides in half, and used a stronger flour, so I wouldn’t add in a third adjustment if you’re happy with the texture.

If you’re feeling ambitious, you could figure out how much baking powder the downy yellow uses per 100g of batter at different pan sizes (using the back of the Cake Bible), and that would give you a starting point.

Hi Julie

I just baked the lovely Golden Luxury Buttercake last night.  It was so good, I want to bake it again but thinking of using just a springform round pan 9x3 instead of two 9 x 2.  I thought of sticking a rose nail in the center to ensure even baking too and probably reduce the baking powder as suggested in your post.  Have you heard of anyone trying to combine Rose’s 2 layer pans batter into one pan?

Bonnie

Hello, bonniev.  Glad to hear you liked the golden luxury.

You are thinking of a deeper 3” pan, but the same 9” diameter, is that right?  This would be risky, Rose has said on her blog that her recipes don’t work in 3” deep pans.  I imagine that all sorts of problems crop up with the structure of the cake not being strong enough to hold up its own weight with such a deep layer.  Also, the sides would be overdone before the center was fully baked. 

If you do want to try it, I would recommend using a large heat core, effectively turning the pan into a tube pan.  Not sure about baking powder adjustments when you are changing the depth of the pan, some experimenting might be in order.  You could compare with a bundt pan recipe to get a general idea, but the white chocolate formula will be different from a standard yellow cake. 

Good luck!

FYI re: the baking powder adjustment, Rose indicates in the recipe that her Golden Luxury cake is based on the yellow base cake. However, she made a few adjustments because of the changes - among them a slight increase in baking powder. The added milk solids tend to toughen a cake’s structure, so she used extra bp to ensure tenderness.

If you do play around with the recipe using the info at the back of the book, the bp amounts for the different levels should be multiplied first by 1.125 before doing your calculations. I have no idea if an adjustment is also needed to go to a 3” high pan. I’ve always understood, as Julie wrote, that Rose’s butter cake recipes don’t work in 3” high pans. If anyone has had a different experience, I’m sure they’ll chime in.

Yesibake - 19 October 2009 10:28 AM

Hector-

Thanks for the loaf pan tip. I’m assuming a 8 1/2 in. loaf pan can be used for any recipe that calls for a 6 cup fluted tube pan without tweaking the recipe??

Also, I couldn’t find the measurements of what is a standard loaf pan size that has a 10 cup volume.  And would I have to reduce the amount of batter I make?

That is good to know. I was just about to start a thread on this subject.

Do I understand this correctly..I can use a 8 1/4 loaf pan in place of another pan with a 6-cup volume without adjusting the recipe?

I wanted to make this marble cake in a 10” square and 9” round cake and not sure how to adapt this recipe? any suggestions?