Just wondering if any of you could help me out with some info. I felt like I was just starting to get good at baking, but then recently found out I have celiac disease, and now I can't have anything with gluten in it, which means no wheat flour . So now I feel like I am learning to bake all over again. I have some recipes that are okay (using mostly a mixture of rice flour, tapioca flour, and potato starch), but I am trying to tinker with them a bit to see if I can get them a little better. Could anyone tell me what happens when you add extra eggs to a cake batter? I had thought that it would make the cake more moist and perhaps more dense (more brownie-like?), but I have a gluten-free cake mix that says you can add an extra egg for a "lighter" cake, and for a "denser" cake, to use 1/4 cup less water. I have not tried the mix yet. I have pretty much been trying to work with the scratch recipes I have so far, but these instructions are making me wonder if I am making the correct adjustments in my experiments. I realize that the fact that I am not using wheat flour is probably changing how some of the other ingredients are acting, but I figured if I understand a little better how a "normal" cake batter works, it might help me to perfect my gluten-free recipes. I would greatly appreciate any info on this, or info on what "properties" any other ingredients add to a cake. Thanks!

bump

I'm sorry I don't know - unfortunately, I'm still a recipe person. I thought I heard that Shirley Corriher's Bakewise had just come out though. I think that could be a great resource? Though I'm not sure if things act the same way with the substitutions as they do with wheat flour. I'll be interesting in following this thread!

Heres a bump, sorry i can't help.

A very informative site for scratch baking:

www.joyofbaking.com

(Cake) Baking & Baking Science:

http://www.bakingandbakingscience.com/Cakes.htm

HTH

Eggs will give you protien, and fat. The whites are protien, these will give you your structure, like an Angel food cake. The fat in the yolks will help with the softness.

If you want to experiment. Make the mix your making. Separate the eggs, add the yolks to the recipe. Whip the whites till firm, and gently fold them in to the batter. Don't STIR them in , fold them in. If stirred in you will deflate the air that you just incorporated.

Mike

You can/should experiment with making a "blend" of the substitute flours. I have found it best to combine soy, rice and corn to come up with a nice blend. Soy alone has a stronger flavor, corn alone is too soft (not enough structure). I use the addition of plain yogurt to help with the moisture issue. The only thing you can do is experiement.