Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum: Equipment Archives

Equipment

Bare Bone Baking Essentials for Cake Baking

Years ago, when I had a cooking school, one of my colleagues who took my classes said that she had to question her commitment to baking because when she returned to Japan she didn’t have room in her small apartment for all the equipment that seemed necessary.

More recently, Nicole Martella who works at William Morrow, publishing home of The Cake Bible, expressed the same sentiment. So I decided to list the absolute essentials for baking most cakes. And there really aren’t many nor do they take up a lot of space.

Those of you familiar with this blog and my work know how devoted I am to weighing. And a scale takes up about the same space as the alternative of measuring cups for solid and liquid ingredients.

I didn’t list things like wooden toothpicks for cake testing and parchment to line cake pans which I consider to be staples.

A hand held mixer
A scale (preferably My Weigh: Model number KD7000 www.myweigh.com) or
A set of measuring cups (preferably pourfect www.pourfectbowl.com)
A cup for measuring liquids (preferably pourfect beaker)
A set of measuring spoons (preferably pourfect)
A sifter or strainer
A 9 inch by 2 inch cake pan (preferably Chicago Metallic www.chicagometallic-bakeware.com)
A 10 cup fluted tube pan (preferably Nordicware) www.nordicware.com
Two wire cooling racks, preferably Combrichon
An instant read thermometer such as a Thermapen or CDN
A silicone spatula reserved for baking
A reliable recipe
A baking spray containing flour, preferably Baker’s Joy

From the kitchen of Rose on 08.23.08 at 9:12 AM in Equipment

Cake Questions Three

It has happened again! Cake Questions Too has become so long a thread it takes forever to load so i have closed the postings options for this Thread and Reopened it as Cake Questions Three.

Please also use one of the 4 categories under Cake Questions:
Equipment
General
Ingredients
Wedding

From the kitchen of Rose on 05.17.08 at 2:14 PM in General

Microwave Magic and Me

Kate Coldrick’s enlightening postings on the heat treatment of flour on this blog and on her own: www.amerrierworld.wordpress.com/may be responsible single-handed for a tidal wave increase in microwave sales around the world!

But it grieves me to think that people will be using their new microwaves only for flour! So I’ve decided to put together a short list to get you started on other great uses for the microwave.

First some background history.

There has been and may still exist some degree of snobbery when it comes to microwaves that sounds something like this: “Oh I would NEVER have a microwave in MY kitchen.” I suspect this attitude stems from the incorrect use of microwaves such as cooking bacon which granted rids it of fat but also toughens it.

I started experimenting with microwave cooking as a student at NYU using a microwave oven that dated back to WWII. It was my assignment to put it through its paces and in the process prepare a dinner for professor Pfaff who had one of those enviable metabolisms that required her to eat substantially well everyday or she would lose weight. No one knew much about microwave cooking at the time and there was much to learn, the main thing being that it was great for some things but to be avoided for others.

Continue reading "Microwave Magic and Me" »

From the kitchen of Rose on 12.15.07 at 4:41 PM in Equipment

Cake Strips

KIMBERLY QUESTION

I have a question regarding cake strips. I have several sets that I've been using for many years, but they don't seem to be working anymore. I saturate them in icy water, squeeze them firmly and wrap them around the base of the pan, but the cake layers heave and crack and don't stay level. (The oven temp. isn't too hot) Any ideas why my cake strips aren't doing the trick anymore?

PS: I have all of your books and love them all.

ROSE REPLY

thank you! I've used cake strips until they were falling apart and they never stopped working. Recently I learned from my friend and colleague, Dede Wilson, how to make my own cake strips simply by enclosing folded, wet paper towels in a long strip of heavy-duty aluminum foil, overlapped to be the same height as the cake pan.

are you using the same cake recipes that worked well before? are you using all-purpose instead of cake flour? Are you sure the oven isn't hotter? Is the leavening old? That's all I can think of.

From the kitchen of Rose on 01.06.06 at 4:23 PM in Equipment

Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum

This scratch baking blog, featuring baker and cookbook author Rose Levy Beranbaum, is an online journal of Rose’s baking adventures, cooking tips, and scratch recipes. Her cookbooks include Bread Bible, Pie and Pastry Bible, Rose’s Christmas Cookies, Passion for Chocolate and The Cake Bible.

Equipment

Bare Bone Baking Essentials for Cake Baking

Cake Questions Three

Microwave Magic and Me

Cake Strips