Page 36 - Chocolate Cake Doctor

18 C H O C O L A T E C A K E M I X 1 0 1

The Dump Method and Ingredient Temperature

don’t think you’ll find the term “the whip to a greater volume than cold egg
Idump method” outlined in any whites.
culinary reference book, and I wasn’t But take the most care when you are
trying to be irreverent when I used it in working with cream cheese. Not only
The Cake Mix Doctor. How best to describe should cream cheese be at room
the ease with which these cakes are temperature (or softened in the microwave
prepared? Dump the ingredients into the oven if your kitchen is cold), but the
bowl, rev up the mixer, and you’re ingredients added to it should be around
baking! the same temperature, or they might cause
But, as is often the case when I the cream cheese to lump up. And you can
oversimplify, questions do arise. If one beat the batter blue with an electric
dumps ingredients in the bowl, should the mixer—those lumps will never disappear.
ingredients be at room temperature or I find, too, that when assembling
straight out of the fridge? In most recipes, buttercream frostings with softened
those ingredients can be right out of your butter, the frosting will pull together more
refrigerator. easily if the liquid you are adding is at
The exceptions are recipes that room temperature. Cold liquids, and even
specifically call for butter to be softened or a cold mixing bowl, can cause that butter
melted, and recipes that call for beaten egg to firm up and make the frosting more
whites. Room-temperature egg whites will difficult to spread.

Chocolate Cake Mix Pantry right. Keep these on hand and you’ll be all
set for spur-of-the-moment baking.
hether you’re assembling a layer
W cake, pudding cake, chiffon cake, THE ESSENTIALS
cheesecake, cookies, or biscotti, certain • Cake mixes: Devil’s food, chocolate
ingredients are essential to the process. fudge, butter recipe chocolate fudge, Ger-
Cake mix baking is easy, but just because man chocolate, fudge marble, brownie
the cake goes together simply doesn’t mix, as well as angel food, white, yellow,
mean the ingredients don’t have to be just butter recipe golden, and spice cake