Cakes, pastries, cookies and biscuits: formulas, methods, baking and finishing
What this domain tests
This domain tests formula balance and method selection for cakes, pastries, cookies and biscuits. You should know creaming, reverse creaming, foaming, lamination, cut-in and dropping methods, and how ingredients control texture and spread.
Core rules
- Cakes depend on measured fat, sugar, eggs, flour and leavening. Creaming butter and sugar traps air; reverse creaming coats flour in fat and gives a fine, moist crumb. Foaming uses whipped eggs for structure.
- Pastry: short crust uses rubbed-in fat; puff pastry uses laminated butter layers; choux uses a cooked flour paste and steam.
- Cookies spread more with warm dough, more sugar or liquid, and a hot pan. Chilling dough reduces spread. Biscuits are usually thin, crisp and low in moisture.
- Measure by weight, fold flour gently and avoid over-mixing once flour is added. Bake on the correct tray and check browning plus texture.
Worked example
A creamed cake uses 250 g butter, 250 g sugar, 250 g eggs, 250 g flour and 5 g baking powder. Cream butter and sugar until pale; add eggs gradually; fold in sifted flour and baking powder. Scaling to 1.5 gives 375 g of each main ingredient and 7.5 g baking powder. Reason: all ingredients scale by the same factor, and small leavening amounts need precise scales.
Traps
Using warm butter for creaming; over-mixing after flour addition; scooping flour; opening the oven early; rolling pastry with too much flour; storing crisp biscuits with soft cakes.