Carrot Cake - A Question of Timing

I received this question from Laurie Koch asking,

“Can I prepare a carrot cake at 8 in the morning, put it in a 9×13 pan, put it in the fridge, and then take it out and bake it at 8 p.m. at night? If not, why not?

The consensus is it needs to be baked right after it is prepared and in the pan, but no one can tell me why?? My husband is hoping to save on electricity costs and heating up the house. My response, “tough!!”

So I sent this question to contributing writer Jenni Field who is a professional baker. Here is what she had to say,

Dear Laurie,

While I applaud your husband’s wanting to save electricity, I join you in saying, “Tough!” to him.

The issue with holding batter over is about the leavening.  I’m not sure what your recipe calls for, but if it’s like many carrot cakes, it is leavened with baking soda.  Baking soda has its rather boisterous chemical reaction as soon as it gets wet.

That means that the closer to mixing that you bake, the lighter your cake will be since all those bubbles will still be present to leaven the cake.  The longer you let the batter sit, the fewer the bubbles that remain.

If your recipe calls for baking powder, at least in part, you’ll be a bit better off if you use double acting baking powder.  As its name implies, it has double the chemical reaction.

Or rather, it’s comprised of components that release gases under different conditions.  Some release gas once they get wet, or are mixed into the batter.  Others release their gases as they get hot, or in the oven.  This buys you some time since you’ll still get some of the leavening effect from the gases emitted in the oven.

The bottom line is that, with either type of leavening, if you wait a substantial amount of time between mixing and baking, your cake will not rise as high and will be somewhat dense.  Having said that, carrot cakes are generally extremely moist, and lots of folks like them kind of dense.  So, I guess I’d better amend my “tough” to your husband.

If you are a fan of light, well risen cakes, you’ll need to either mix and bake in the evening (and mixing shouldn’t take too much time, especially if you have all of your ingredients ready), or live with kinda dense cake.  Actually, I’d suggest you measure/prep your ingredients in the morning and then mix and bake in the evening to get the best of both worlds.  Compromise is a beautiful thing!

Jenni’s New Newsletter

If you spend any time here on my blog or web site, you will hear me talk about Chef Jenni Field. She is a wonderful writer with encyclopedia like knowledge all things pastry and baking. Jenni has recently begun writing a monthly newsletter you can sign up for at Pastry Chef Online.   I encourage you to do so.

As part of my Ask A Chef feature, I just received this email from Ellen who is in a debate with her friends about reusing used breadcrumbs. She writes,

Debating with friends whether you can reuse breadcrumbs that egg battered fish were dipped in if I froze it immediately and will cook with it immediately.  Everyone says “no” but I don’t understand why when you can freeze raw egg, freeze raw meat and no bacteria would have time to grow freezing it immediately and then cooking immediately!  Thanks in advance.

New Contributing Writer Chef Mark R. Vogel

My immediate response would be No too and why bother when breadcrumbs are inexpensive and easy to make yourself,  but not being a professional chef or food scientist, I passed this question on to my newest contributing writer, Chef Mark Vogel. You may remember Mark from one of my earliest Novice2Pro interviews and from several great articles he has contributed to the site.

Chef Mark will be contributing articles to my cooking blog that fall into five categories including:

1) Ingredients:  articles on a specific ingredients such as onions, butter, tarragon, etc.
2) Classic Dishes:  such as crepes suzette or beef Wellington
3) Wine:  articles on specific wines and issues with wine
4) Cooking Techniques:  These are your classic “how to” articles
5)  Food For Thought:  These are discussion articles where he delves into some aspect of food and mankind.  These run a wide gamut from psychological aspects of food, economics, current topics in the food business, etc.  Some of these are straightforward informative discussions such as how to save money at the supermarket or how to choose cookware.  However, in others he frequently challenges food myths and irrationalities about food, and what he calls our “food neurotic” culture.  Hence…..food for “thought.”

And time to time, like now, Chef Mark will thankfully help me answer questions like these. Here is how he explained it to me -

First of all, freezing does not KILL bacteria, nor does it even completely stop their growth.  Rather it inhibits it.  Frozen food will eventually go bad.

Second, the used breadcrumbs that have come into contact with the raw fish can possibly have bacteria on them while fresh breadcrumbs would not.

Now, with those two things said, how much actual risk would there be if the used breadcrumbs were indeed frozen immediately, used in the near future and cooked to a temperature that would kill bacteria?  Probably not much.

But as cheap as breadcrumbs are, why take any unnecessary chances?  Moreover, there isn’t a food on the planet that tastes better after being frozen, (except foods that are frozen in their natural state like ice cream).  Fresh breadcrumbs will taste better than fishy, frozen breadcrumbs.

Thank you Chef Mark for a great response and I’m looking forward to reading your contributing posts. If anyone would like to learn more about Chef Mark, please read my Interview with Chef & Food Writer, Dr. Mark Volgel and visit his web site Food For Thought.

Cooking Questions & Answers

I get email from you guys all the time asking me questions about various cooking topics. The questions come from all over and I do my best to answer them. If I can’t give you a good response, I recruit the help of one of my many professional chef friends. Here are a few questions I bet many of you would like answers to.

Pounding Chicken Breasts

What is the correct way to pound chicken breasts to use in chicken picatta? Do I start with thin slices or if I already have “normal” sized chicken breasts, do I slice them thinner before pounding? How hard should I pound?

photo from goodhousekeeping.com

You do not need to slice full breasts any thinner in order to pound them out.  I would use the smooth side of a meat mallet or even a fairly heavy, smooth bottomed frying pan.  Spray a little oil on the meat so the mallet will slide and then start in the center, pounding and sliding off to one side (as opposed to just crashing straight down on the meat).

Continue pounding, sliding off in a slightly different direction each time (or, conversely, turning the meat between each blow) to create an even thickness.  I’ve also seen this done with the meat between two pieces of plastic wrap and I have used wax paper.  Keep pounding until the meat is roughly 1/4″ thick and all your frustrations have melted away. Another great reason for learning how to cook.

Take your time; this isn’t a test of strength.  In fact you want to do this a gently as possible (if pounding can ever be considered gentle) because you don’t want to tear the meat.  This same technique can also be used on any other type of lean meat–turkey, pork or beef.

Smashed Potatoes

I want to know how to make restaurant style smashed potatoes….the kind that are chunky.

Okay, here’s what you do:  use red bliss potatoes, or some other type of potato with lovely red skin.  If they are very small, boil them whole in well salted water until easily pierced with a fork.  Cut larger potatoes in half or quarters.

When tender, drain well, then put back on the heat and let them dry for a couple of minutes.  This will keep them fluffier–the dryer, the better.  Leave the skins on.  Since you want to keep them chunky, add all your add-ins before you start smashing:  some warmed dairy–either milk, half and half, cream, sour cream (don’t let the sour cream boil), etc.

Salt and pepper to taste, butter to taste and perhaps some roasted garlic.  Then, smash away with a potato masher that has large openings - the kind that has one thick metal tube that curves back and forth is a good one for this.  Smash to your particular smashiness and enjoy.

For garnish try sprinkling with fresh chives or parsley.

Egg Expiration

How do you tell if your eggs are expired and not good to use?

That is an “eggcellent” question, and no, I couldn’t help myself!

Eggs stay usable for a surprisingly long time as long as they are refrigerated.  The best way to tell if an egg is still usable without cracking it open is to put it in water–at least 4 inches of water.  If it stays on the bottom, you’re good to go.  If it’s a floater, toss it away.

Why this works: All eggs have a membrane between the shell and the albumin (the clear, viscous liquid inside).  There is no air between the membrane and the shell in a freshly-laid egg, but as the egg ages, the air pocket inside gets larger and larger due to osmosis through the permeable shell. Once the egg has enough of an air pocket to float, it has definitely passed its prime.

I have also been told by a egg farmer that if you hold an egg with the pointy side down and shine a flashlight on the top of the egg, you can see a space between the egg and the shell with older eggs. I’ve tried this and either it doesn’t work or my eggs were all very fresh.

Prolong egg life by storing eggs in the containers they came in on the bottom shelf of your fridge.  Don’t store them in those cute little egg holders that come in some refrigerator doors.  It’s warmer in the doors because of all the opening and closing.