Keeping A Scratch Cake Fresher/moister Longer?
Decorating By absolutecakes Updated 20 Mar 2008 , 4:37am by Hawkette
Is there anything that you can add to a scratch cake to keep it fresher or more moist for a longer period of time? Even just an extra couple days. I know you can get cake enhancers, but I am not exactly sure if this is what you would use them for.
Any ideas would be great!
Katie
I've heard people use a simple syrup to moisten their cakes. I'm not sure if it adds any time to the length of freshness, though. There is a recipe on this site for a simple syrup using liqueur as a flavoring, but I suppose if you didn't want to use booze (LOL) you could omit it and it would be fine. Good luck!
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2963-3-Liqueur-Flavored-Simple-Syrup.html
King Arthur Flour sells a culinary thickener called signiture secrets, that is supposed to make scratch cakes more moist. I bought it but haven't tried it out yet. I've also seen a recipe on their site that uses corn starch. I'm wondering if that might also help with moistness, since it is also a thickener. Anybody familiar with this? I'm not exactly sure this answers your question, though because just 'cause it's more moist when it comes out of the oven, does not necessarily mean the cake will be moist two days later.
Thanks for asking this question...I've been wondering too. I've found sour-cream based recipes tend to keep longer.
Lor-Ann sells bakery emulsions which are supposed to not "bake-out." Do these help preserve cakes?
I have worked at two bakeries (still at the second). We always simple syrup our cakes-my first bakery did it for cupcakes, too.
Simple syrup:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
let come to boil and boil without stirring until sugar has completely dissolved.
Generously brush all cake tops with syrup. I freeze my syrup and take it out whenever I need it.
It definitely keeps the cake moister and I think with the additional syrup, helps to make it stay fresher longer.
HTH!!
alanahodgson: Does the package give instructions on how you would use the signature secrets? I would be interested in hearing more about this.
I haven't done much with scratch baking. The times I've done it, I used flavored coffee syrup in place of doing simple syrup. The one cake I did lasted almost a whole week and it was still fine.
i dont know if this helps, but i always freeze my scratch cakes at least for one day. this adds plenty of moisture to my scratch chocolate cakes as they dont even dry out in the fridge
there are plenty threads on CC about freezing cakes.
i will search for a couple of them for you
here is the link:
http://forum.cakecentral.com/freezing-cakeshelp-ftopicp-5708244.html#5708244
this will be useful if you are concerned about the cake drying out / going stale if you bake it a couple of days in advance
[quote="puzzlegut"]alanahodgson: Does the package give instructions on how you would use the signature secrets? I would be interested in hearing more about this. quote]
yes, it does. The package says to add like 1 TBS per cup of flour I think.
To enhance moistness, once your cakes are baked an cool enough to handle, but still warm, wrap them in plastic wrap and put them in the refrigerator (overnight is best). This allows the cake to reabsorb some of the moisture it loses through evaporation while baking.
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