Page 179 - Chocolate Cake Doctor

S H E E T C A K E S 161

time because of more surface area and Cake, the Watergate Cake, and the Ba -
less height. nana Split Fudge Cake are sliced and
Those of you who live at higher served right from the pan. Dust the pan

altitudes (over 3,500 feet) should be with a little flour if you want to invert
forewarned that sheet cake cooking in the cake and frost it—like the Choco -
your territory is risky business. There late Coconut Cream Cake with German
is less structural support for the cake Chocolate Frosting or the Chocolate
batter, and because cakes at higher Egg nog Cake with Eggnog Buttercream

altitudes tend to bake higher than Frosting. (If you’ll want to unmold the
they might at sea level, sheet cakes cake, don’t bake it in a glass pan. Glass
rise and then sink in the middle. Con- pans cook more quickly and the cake
sult the cake mix box for advice or see will stick to the corners.) Some cakes

my High-Altitude Baking tips (pages are inverted because there are goodies
10 to 11). The good news is, you can on the bottom—for example, the Ger-
always fill the dip with extra frosting! man Chocolate Upside-Down Cake and
the White Chocolate Pineapple Upside-
“Chocolate: It flatters you for a Down Cake.
while, it warms you for an instant; You don’t have to be a math whiz
then all of a sudden, it kindles a
to figure out that the sheet cake is the
mortal fever in you.”
cake that feeds the crowd. These cakes
—MARIE, MARQUISE DE SÉVIGNÉ
will generously feed sixteen, amply
feed twenty, easily feed twenty-four,
With your sheet pan lightly misted and I know my frugal grandmother
with vegetable oil spray, you’re ready to could stretch one to feed an entire
bake any of the cakes in this chapter. school! And I know she’d approve of
The German Chocolate Velvet Crumb every one of these versatile and crowd-
Cake, the Chocolate Zucchini Raisin pleasing recipes!