A homemade cake will decorate any table. But its taste characteristics depend on the preparation of the base. In this article we will tell you at what temperature to bake sponge cakes on different devices, and what types they come in. We will also consider the main mistakes when cooking.
Important rules for baking fluffy sponge cakes
Indeed, only a few confectioners produce tasty and tender sponge cakes. But if you prepare it, following all the rules, then the basis for a cake or roll will definitely work out. And don’t be upset if it doesn’t work out the first time. Many people mistakenly believe that cakes are tender only if you know at what temperature to bake the sponge cake, how long to keep in the oven, and how many ingredients are required. If you only know this, then you won’t get a tender base for the cake.
Technology for preparing products for biscuit dough:
- You need to prepare all the necessary equipment: a bowl, a whisk (mixer with attachments), a spoon. Everything should be not only clean, but also dry. And preferably cold.
- Eggs are taken only fresh, washed, not from the refrigerator, their temperature should be at room temperature. When a recipe requires separating the white and yolk, it is better to do this in a separate plate rather than in the main bowl. If a yolk accidentally gets in, you can put that portion of the egg aside and take another one.
- You need to start beating the eggs at low speed; when the first bubbles appear (after thirty to forty seconds), the mixer power increases to maximum. Pay special attention to beating the eggs.
- If the yolk and white need to be beaten together, then sugar is added here when the egg mass increases by 30%. You need to add it gradually, the next portion of sugar is added when the previous one has completely dissolved. Typically, a beaten egg with sugar increases five times in volume.
- If you need to beat the yolk and white separately, it is better to start with the yolk. Beat it at high speed with half a portion of sugar. The egg is considered ready when all the sugar has dissolved, the yolk turns light yellow, and the volume triples. The consistency of the yolk should be like cream.
- Then the whites are whipped. In this case, sugar is poured in gradually. A well-beaten egg white does not run off the sides of the bowl (it is somewhat similar in consistency to shaving foam).
- Before use, sugar is checked for lumps and debris (sometimes there is debris). Do not pour all the sugar into the dough at once, it will make the base heavier. But if you add it in parts, it will dissolve faster and allow the egg to beat well. When powdered sugar is used for cooking, it does not play a big role; it will not affect the speed of beating the eggs.
- Before use, flour must be sifted, and more than once (maybe 3 times). If you need to add cocoa or starch to the dough, it is better to mix them together with flour and sift both ingredients together.
- If the recipe requires you to beat the white and yolk separately, then the flour can be added to the yolk with sugar and beat with a mixer. You can also add 1/3 of the whipped egg white.
- If the yolk is not separated, then the flour must be poured carefully, in small portions, into the beaten egg-sugar mixture and carefully mixed with a spatula. Movements are made in one direction. You need to try to maintain the volume of the beaten egg. You cannot mix the dough with a mixer, otherwise all the airiness will subside.
- When a recipe calls for adding chocolate to the dough, it is first melted in a water bath and cooled to room temperature. It is poured into the dough at the end of cooking in a thin stream.
- The butter is also pre-melted. Then beat with a mixer until it turns white and becomes fluffy. Add to the dough at the end.
- If you need to use juice or other liquid in the recipe, then it is better to beat the yolk separately from the white. It is better to add liquid to the yolk (with sugar).
- Various additives (raisins, nuts, dried apricots, prunes, coconut, etc.) are added only to the finished dough. They must be washed and dried, otherwise moisture from them may be the reason that the dough will not rise. You can add them when the dough is already in the mold. You should not put juicy berries. They will ruin the entire biscuit; they can only be used in the form of a puree, which is added when beating the yolk.
- For baking, the dough should be used immediately after preparation. Until it settled down. It is better to put baking paper on the bottom of the mold (preferably a springform pan).
Baking - the last stage
At what temperature do you bake the biscuits? The oven must be preheated, the dough must be placed carefully and the cabinet door must also be closed smoothly, without abruptly slamming. Bake the biscuit at a temperature of 175-185 degrees. Do not open the door during baking, otherwise the dough will settle. Be sure to place the pan in the center of the oven for even temperature distribution.
When the time is up, check the biscuit with a match or a dry knife for readiness. If the match is dry, then the cake is ready. What mode do you use to bake the biscuits? Different devices select their own. For example, in a multicooker the “Baking” mode is selected. It is also worth considering the cooking time, which depends on the consistency of the dough and the height of the cake.
Methods for preparing biscuits. Two known methods
Depending on the ingredients, there are an unlimited number of recipes. There are also two well-known methods of preparing dough:
- Cold way. It is more suitable for making roll dough. The finished biscuit should be light and not crumbly.
- Hot cooking method. The biscuit has a denser structure and does not settle during baking.
Features of the cold method. What is being done and in what order?
Most often, recipes use a cold method of preparing dough. Features of this method:
- For the dough you need to separate the yolk from the white. Beat the yolk with half the sugar until the dough increases in volume up to three times.
- Separately, beat the whites according to all the rules (sprinkle sugar a little at a time, the mass should increase up to five times).
- Add 1/3 of the white to the yolk and gradually add flour. Mix gently, without sudden movements, until all the flour is in the dough.
- Then the remaining protein is added and everything is mixed with smooth movements from bottom to top.
Features of the hot method. Sequencing
Features of the hot cooking method:
- beat the egg (without separating) in a water bath, bring to a temperature of 45 degrees;
- Without removing the mixer from the bowl, place the dishes on the table and gradually add sugar, stir until the volume increases three times;
- Flour is gradually added.
The method at which the dough is prepared does not depend on how many degrees the biscuit is baked at. Therefore, choose the method that is more convenient for you. If baked in the oven, then an average temperature of 180 degrees is selected.
and description
Usually the cooking method (hot or cold) is indicated in the recipe. The taste and shape of the sponge cake (crumbly, stretchy, crispy, etc.) depend on the composition of the dough. Below we will look at several common types of biscuits:
- Standard biscuit. To prepare the dough you need to adhere to the proportions. Take one tbsp per egg. l. sugar and flour. The egg is beaten whole (do not separate into white and yolk). The dough is prepared according to the standard procedure. At what temperature to bake the biscuit in the oven and for how long depends on the amount of dough. The cakes turn out a bit dry (this will be corrected by the cream, which is easily absorbed), but quite dense.
- Chiffon sponge cake. Commonly used to make muffins. To prepare it, the yolk is beaten separately from the white. To the standard recipe, vegetable oil and baking powder are added to the dough to add fluffiness.
- Gioconda. This type of dough can be used not only for baking cake layers, but also for rolls and pastries. Almond flour is added to the dough flour. This makes the color of the cakes darker. In addition to the beaten whole egg, separately beaten whites are added to the dough (the downside of the recipe is that unused yolks remain). Butter is also added. The biscuit turns out tender, airy and with a nutty taste.
- Pan de female A mixture of almond flour, egg white and powdered sugar is added to a standard biscuit dough base. It tastes like Mona Lisa sponge cake, only denser and drier. Cakes are suitable for creating
- Genoise. Butter is added to the standard recipe. In terms of taste and texture, the result is something between a standard sponge cake and a chiffon one. An excellent base for sponge cake.
- Dacquoise. Only whipped egg whites are used for cooking. Coconut flakes are also added to the standard recipe. The biscuit turns out quite dense, sweet, but not dry.
How to bake a biscuit in an oven or other electrical device? This, again, will depend on the volume of the dough, what ingredients are included and how stiff the dough is. The exact proportions and sequence of mixing must be observed according to the recipe.
How many degrees to bake a biscuit on different devices
The correctly set temperature on a particular device is a 70% guarantee of preparing a high-quality biscuit. But when cooking cakes in the oven, one temperature regime is set, and when cooking in a slow cooker, it is completely different.
Let's consider at what degree the biscuit should be baked (taking into account the average thickness and consistency of the dough).
| Device name | Minimum temperature (degrees) | Maximum temperature (degrees) | Baking time (min.) | Notes |
| Oven (gas) | You can bake at 200 degrees for no more than 30 minutes. (thin cakes) |
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| Oven (electric) | Be sure to preheat the oven to 160 degrees |
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| Multicooker | After cooking, remove after 10 minutes. |
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| Microwave | Remove 7 minutes after cooking |
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| Water bath | The most tender and airy cakes are obtained |
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| Double boiler |
If we bake a biscuit in the oven, then there is not much difference in whether it is electric or gas. But this depends on the temperature and baking time. But there is a difference in taste.
But if you need to find out at what temperature to bake a biscuit in the oven for a roll, then you should remember that here the time is several times less. Usually bake at 200 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.
Many people like to cook food using electronic equipment. And if the recipe does not indicate at what temperature to bake the biscuit in a combi oven, then usually take a temperature of 180 degrees and a time of forty minutes.
Confectioners' recommendations for preparing baked goods such as sponge cakes
To ensure that the time spent preparing the biscuit is not wasted, it is important to follow certain rules and avoid mistakes. So, how to bake a sponge cake in the oven? Adhere to the following rules:
- To prevent the finished biscuit from looking like a mound, after the dough is already in the mold, you need to twist it clockwise.
- It is imperative to observe all proportions of ingredients.
- Make sure that there are no bubbles on the dough (when it is already in shape).
- The dough should occupy no more than 2/3 of the baking sheet (as it will rise greatly during baking).
- Do not open the oven during baking for at least the first 15 minutes, otherwise the dough will settle and will not rise again.
- After cooking, the biscuit should rest for at least 4 hours. For better impregnation with creams, it is recommended to let the biscuit stand for 12 hours.
- Cut the cake into pieces. For example, one needs to be cut into two full-fledged cakes, preferably with fishing line or strong thread. This way there will be no creases.
- Be sure to follow the recipe (at what temperature to bake the biscuit is always indicated).
- When preparing biscuit dough, it is better to choose large eggs (they contain more protein).
- It is better to cool the dishes and equipment used for cooking in the freezer in advance.
- Salt, citric acid or juice can be a good help in beating the egg white (if the egg is not beating at all). Therefore, it is advisable to keep them nearby during the cooking process.
- Be sure to sift the flour first. Do not consider this an unnecessary action.
- The mixer is used only for beating eggs. Next, mix everything with a spatula.
- If you need a crust on the sponge cake, grease the pan with butter. If not needed, it is better to line it with baking paper.
- The dough is poured into the mold immediately and placed in the oven, otherwise the biscuit will not rise.
- While the dough is baking, you should not run or jump near the appliance where the biscuit is being prepared. Children often love to spend time with their mother and at the same time they are big fidgets. Due to their jumping, the dough may not rise at all.
- If there are problems with the oven (the bottom is burning, the heat is unevenly distributed), then you can put a couple of bricks (clean) on the bottom of the oven or place a bowl of water.
Reasons why the pie failed. Why might something like this happen?
Often, following all the rules, a person is faced with the fact that the biscuit was not a success. The reason for this may be:
- improper mixing of the dough;
- poorly mixed ingredients;
- incorrectly set baking temperature;
- the time is incorrect, so it is important to know how long to bake the biscuit at a temperature of 180;
- the pan is placed too low in the oven or is not centered;
- a loosely closed oven;
- draft in the kitchen itself;
- The dough stood on the table for a long time and settled.
Making sponge cake at home is a procedure that requires a lot of effort and attention. Any, even the slightest deviation from the recipe or when kneading the dough, baking (for example, the temperature or cooking time of the pie was not observed) and so on will ruin the final result.
And when the biscuits begin to turn out, only then can you start experimenting, coming up with new recipes to pamper your family and friends. At the same time, the consistency of the dough should not differ much from a classic sponge cake.
A little conclusion
Now you know how long to bake a biscuit in the oven at 180 and how to do it correctly. Fresh and properly selected products, prepared equipment, adherence to time and temperature make up 80% of the success in preparing a tasty, tender, and most importantly, baked and fluffy pie.
Vladimir, how to make delicious biscuit dough?
Proportions for classic biscuit dough: for 1 egg 25 grams of sugar and 25 grams of flour. The result will be approximately 60 grams of biscuit. At first glance, everything is simple: measure, mix, bake. But in fact, in the preparation of biscuit dough there are a number of not obvious things that affect the final result.
For example?
Let's start with the products. Flour must be of the highest quality with high gluten. You cannot take the first grade or bran flour. Before cooking, the flour must be sifted. By the way, there is an option for making a sponge cake without flour, from chopped almonds or other nuts. You will get an almond sponge cake.
Let's go back to the classics...
Also needed for testing sugar, ordinary granulated sugar, fine. It will dissolve better when beaten with the yolks. It must dissolve completely, otherwise grains of sugar will brew, and this will affect the porosity of the biscuit. Undissolved sugar may cause a crunch in the finished product. Therefore, you need to beat well, the yolks until white, the sugar until completely dissolved.
What to beat with and what temperature should the products be at?
You need to beat intensively and do it better with a mixer with a spatula attachment. The yolk temperature may be slightly above room temperature. The longer the yolk sits at room temperature, the better. Protein, on the contrary, loves the cold. Therefore, the whites must be beaten with a cold whisk in a cold bowl until fluffy. There is no need for salt, sugar, or lemon juice - these are additives for meringues. For sponge cakes, the whites are whipped without anything else and always separately.
What's next?
You need to mix the yolks with sugar, add the sifted flour, mix and carefully fold in the whipped whites. To make the biscuit porous, it is important to mix carefully, by hand. The mass should remain airy.
How can you ruin biscuit dough?
For example, overbeat the dough: the longer you beat it, the more rubbery the sponge cake will be. Secondly, the biscuit can be " plant" There is such a concept in professional chef vocabulary. This means that the protein was not mixed into the dough correctly. When the sugar is beaten with the yolk, then the sifted flour is added and only then the whipped white should be added. It is better to do this manually, mixing very carefully with a spatula. So that the protein is distributed evenly, remains airy, and does not shrink. If the biscuit is planted, it can only be used for making cakes " Potato».
What else is contraindicated for biscuit dough?
Acid. If there is citric acid in the dough, it will destroy the protein and “seat” the biscuit. The biscuit does not need fat (butter or cream).
What then can be added to a biscuit without harm?
Almost any spices. For example, cinnamon, anise, star anise, Indian spices or cocoa powder. The main thing is not to overdo it. If ground cinnamon, then literally on the tip of a knife for one biscuit. Be sure to grind the spices well, mix with flour and sift before adding to the dough. Their set will depend on what the biscuit is needed for. If this is an independent dish, you should stick to the classic version, without additives.
What about more interesting additives?
Chocolate, for example. It must be melted, mixed and added when mixing the white with the yolk. Or here’s an unusual additive: matcha green tea. Add to the dough and get a green sponge cake. I prefer adding cloves or cinnamon; they give an interesting taste.
In what form should the biscuit be baked, and with what should I grease it?
In a round springform pan with non-stick coating: 24-26 cm is the ideal diameter. With high sides, the higher the dough, the fluffier the sponge cake. If the pan has a non-stick coating, you don’t need to grease it, just bake it. If using parchment, cut a circle the diameter of the bottom of the pan and a high strip, just above the sides.
At what temperature should the biscuit be baked?
If you bake in the traditional way in the oven, then for a thick sponge cake it is 180 °C, for thin - 200 °C.
What is “not traditional”?
Steam. My neighbor in the country, an Armenian, cooks this way. And it's really very tasty! This biscuit is much airier. Place a container on a pan of boiling water, pour the dough into it and “bake”. It takes longer to prepare, of course. The time depends on the thickness of the biscuit, but on average it is 40 minutes at 100 °C. You can bake the sponge cake in a convection steamer at 120°C. Sometimes it's worth trying to cook classic things in a different way like this.
Is it a myth that the oven door should not be opened while baking?
Believe me, it's not a myth. You really can’t open the oven, otherwise the biscuit will settle irrevocably. The biscuit dough rises due to the protein. It rises, gradually increasing in volume. And you need to be patient so as not to disturb the temperature regime. When the dough has risen, the volume has been fixed, baked at a sufficient temperature, it does not fall.
How long should it take before the oven can be opened?
20 minutes minimum. Then you can start looking, trying, checking readiness. Take a bamboo skewer, lower it into the middle and see: if it’s wet, the dough is still raw, if it’s dry, the biscuit is ready.
How to properly remove a sponge cake from the mold so that it does not fall apart?
The finished biscuit must be completely cooled in the mold for 4 hours.. Then carefully remove (you can trim around the perimeter with a knife), remove from the parchment and leave for another hour. Afterwards, the sponge cake can be cut, soaked and sealed with cream - this is if the cake needs to be prepared quickly.
When and how to soak a biscuit?
Ideal for soaking and gluing yesterday's sponge cake; it will absorb the impregnation better. The finished biscuit can be left overnight in the refrigerator, covered with film or placed in an airtight container so as not to absorb foreign odors.
Soak immediately before gluing. A good biscuit can absorb up to 2 liters of impregnation. Therefore, you need to soak it very well: take a spoon or brush and coat each cake generously.
What is the ideal way to soak a biscuit?
The impregnation should be cognac. You need to mix 1 part cognac with 10 parts sugar syrup. Mix well and soak the biscuit. Rum, Amaretto liqueur or coffee are also suitable as alcohol. The technology for coffee is the same as for tiramisu. Fresh espresso should be mixed with Amaretto liqueur. Or make lingonberry impregnation: cook fruit juice (according to any recipe) and mix it with syrup.
What kind of cream should I prepare?
Will do butter or buttercream, and whipped cream. For a classic cream, you need to beat 100 g of butter with 50 g of condensed milk, add a little 10 grams of cognac. It is good to shade the cream with berries, for example, lingonberries. When the sponge cake is glued with cream, let it soak for 3-4 hours at room temperature. After this, it can be covered with marzipan or mastic, as well as coated with cream on the outside and sprinkled with crumbs. The choice is huge - wafer crumbs, rice chocolate, coconut flakes or almond petals.
Chef's Tips:
Chicken breasts, thighs, legs
The chef of the Oblomov restaurant, Yuri Bashmakov, shared with us his professional experience on the topic of cooking chicken.
Baking a light, airy sponge cake is not an easy task. Here you need both experience and skill, and most importantly, you need to learn to feel the dough. The more often you bake biscuits, the better they will turn out. Well, a few rules you need to know...
- The products must be fresh and of the highest quality, and the utensils (bowls, whisk, mixer, etc.) must be absolutely clean, without traces of fat and water.
- A baking dish - preferably a springform pan - must be prepared in advance: line it with special paper or grease it with soft butter and lightly sprinkle it with flour.
- The order in which the ingredients are mixed is very important. First, beat the eggs (they should be at room temperature!), then add sugar and lastly wheat flour.
- For greater fluffiness, sift the flour through a sieve and mix with starch.
- It is best to beat eggs with a mixer. If you don’t have it, then use a whisk, but be patient – it will take a long time to beat. The egg mass should increase in volume by 3 times, become whitish in color and resemble the texture of well-whipped cream.
- Sugar is pre-mixed with vanilla sugar and added to the egg mixture gradually.
- Beat the egg-sugar mixture for at least 10 minutes.
- Add flour gradually, reducing mixer speed to minimum. You need to knead the dough for no more than 15-20 seconds so that the biscuit does not turn out too dense. Experienced confectioners advise stirring the flour with your hands (no more than 2 minutes), but this requires skill, otherwise the dough will lose its lightness and airiness.
- If you want to add zest, then this must be done after the flour has been stirred.
- Under no circumstances should the finished dough stand. It must be immediately poured into a baking dish and carefully placed in the oven. At the same time, we must remember that the biscuit is afraid of shaking and can settle even from a sharp slam of the oven door. Therefore, be careful - no unnecessary movements!
- During the first 30 minutes of baking, it is better not to approach the oven at all and under no circumstances open the door. Otherwise, instead of a biscuit, you will end up with an omelette!
- It is best to bake sponge cakes using convection mode. The first half hour is at 180 C, then reduce the temperature to 160 C.
- If the dough rises up in a hump, it means your oven is not heating evenly. Next time, place an additional baking sheet on the top level. If the biscuit burns on the bottom, place a small heat-resistant container with water underneath.
- The finished biscuit should be left in the oven for another 10-15 minutes. Then remove and carefully remove from the mold.
- It is best to cut the biscuit into cakes using a special string.
- If you are baking a sponge cake for a roll, then add melted butter and cooled to room temperature to the dough before adding flour.
- The biscuit dough for the roll is baked on a baking sheet lined with parchment. 10 minutes after the end of baking, the sponge cake should be removed from the oven, removing it from the baking sheet, leaving it on the parchment. Without cooling, spread with jam or marmalade and roll up, carefully peeling off the paper.
- If you want to bake a chocolate sponge cake, first mix the flour with cocoa powder.
- It is not difficult to determine the readiness of the biscuit - it is browned on top, when lightly pressed with a finger, there is no dent left on it, and a wooden stick remains dry when pierced.
And now the recipe:
For 10 eggs – 250 g sugar, 250 g flour, 2 tsp. vanilla sugar, 1 tbsp. starch.
For the roll, add another 500 g of buttermilk to the main recipe.
For chocolate sponge cake - add 2 tbsp to the main recipe. sifted cocoa powder.
(article from the magazine "Gastronom")
Biscuit is a universal baked product for confectioners. Almost no cake is complete without sponge cake; cakes and rolls are made from sponge cake, and used as a base for any confectionery product.
Fluffy, like a cloud, and quite dense, with butter and cream, with nuts and carrots - they are very different, but they are united by their cooking technology. Whatever the biscuit dough, you just need to beat the eggs (or separate whites and yolks) and add the rest of the ingredients as carefully as possible. It is due to the air added during whipping that your sponge cake will rise in the oven.
When baking a biscuit, two processes occur simultaneously. Firstly, the air in the dough heats up and, accordingly, expands; it causes the dough to rise in the oven, that is, increase in volume. Secondly, if there is enough heat (at a baking temperature of 180-200C), the walls of the growing pores are baked. Thus, to get the right sponge cake, you need to beat the eggs well, adding as much air as possible, mix the dough, being careful not to lose the added air, and then bake it correctly at a high enough temperature.
Before carefully studying Irina Chadeeva’s technology, we suggest watching a video recipe from professional pastry chef Oleg Ilyin!
What do we bake from?
FLOUR
Biscuits are baked thanks to the process of gelatinization of starch - when heated in wet dough, it changes its structure, becoming thicker and more viscous. Therefore, the presence of starch is important for a biscuit, and, accordingly, it can be baked from almost any flour - rice, wheat, corn, buckwheat (any flour contains starch). If you replace part of the wheat flour with starch, the biscuit will be stronger and more crumbly. You can bake a sponge cake without flour at all, just with starch. But there is no starch in nut flour (ground nuts), and therefore biscuits with nut flour are less durable and fall apart easily. Nevertheless, confectioners often make biscuits with nuts - they turn out very tasty!
EGGS
Without which it is basically impossible to bake a sponge cake, it is without eggs. It is the eggs that give it both fluffiness (when whipped) and strength (when baked). A well-beaten egg mass is the key to success when working with sponge cake.
SUGAR
For the biscuit, use regular sugar, preferably with small crystals. They dissolve faster, and accordingly, eggs beat better with them.
Basic biscuit recipe
There are many variations of sponge cake, but you should start with the simplest recipe, which, however, is no worse than the most complex. Remember the proportion:
4 eggs
120 g sugar
120 g flour
and no baking powder!
How to make a sponge cake:
1. First, measure out all the ingredients. Sift the flour (and also starch, if you use it) - it is saturated with air and then better mixed into the dough. Separate the eggs into whites and yolks (remember that cold eggs are best separated into whites and yolks), using a large bowl for the whites and a medium-sized bowl for the yolks.
Please note that the biscuit tins and trays must be prepared in advance, and the oven should also be preheated in advance. When the biscuit dough is ready, it must be immediately transferred to the mold (on a baking sheet) and baked without wasting time. The biscuit dough quickly settles, and the finished products from the settled dough turn out low and lumpy.
2. Pour half the sugar into the yolks and beat with a mixer at maximum speed into a thick, almost white mass.
3. Wash and dry the beaters and beat the egg whites at maximum speed until the mixture becomes white and thick. The mixer attachments should leave a clear, non-blurring mark. Just now add the remaining sugar and beat further until the mass becomes snow-white and shiny.
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4. Add the yolks to the whites and mix very carefully with a spoon until the mass becomes homogeneous and light yellow in color.
How to mix correctly? Take a spoon and place the side down into the middle of the bowl. Run the convex part of the spoon along the bottom (towards you), then up the side of the bowl, continue over the dough and lower the spoon back into the middle. The spoon will describe a circle. Repeat this movement, turning the bowl with your other hand. In this way, all types of biscuit (and other whipped) dough are quickly and accurately mixed. This method is called the "folding method".
5. Add flour and other dry ingredients. Mix again using the folding method. Do not stir for too long as the dough may thicken too much.
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As soon as the lumps of flour disappear, stop. Transfer the dough into the mold, level the surface and place in the oven.
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What to add?
Butter is often added to biscuits. To do this, melt it, cool it and pour it in as carefully as possible. Even a small amount of butter makes the crumb more tasty and moist; biscuits with butter do not go stale longer.
How to prepare the form?
There are several ways to prepare molds and bake sponge cakes. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes it doesn't matter what pan you bake in, but sometimes it does.
Method No. 1
Grease the inside of the pan with softened butter (melted butter will drip and you won't get an even coating). Add a spoonful of flour and, shaking the pan, spread the flour first along the sides of the pan and then along the bottom. Tap the pan well to release excess flour.
With this method, the biscuit does not stick at all to the bottom and walls of the mold. After baking for 5–10 minutes, the sponge cake cools down and shrinks slightly in size, with a small gap appearing between the wall of the mold and the sponge cake, and a small mound remains on the sponge cake. Turn the biscuit over onto the wire rack; it will come out easily, with the mound at the bottom and the top completely flat.
DISADVANTAGE: When using this method the sponge cake comes out slightly lower.
Method No. 2
Do not grease the pan, but line the bottom with baking paper.
When baking, the sponge cake will stick to the walls, but when you take out the pan, it will also settle. Since the walls cannot settle (they are stuck), a “hill” will settle, thus, when cooling, the surface of the biscuit will become smooth. The biscuit is removed from the mold only when it has cooled completely. To do this, you need to very carefully run a knife along the walls, separating the biscuit, and remove the mold. Baking paper is removed before using the biscuit.
DISADVANTAGE: in order to separate the biscuit from the walls, skill and accuracy are required; Silicone molds cannot be used.
Method No. 3
Do not grease the pan or place baking paper on the bottom.
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This method is suitable for the lightest and most delicate biscuits, which settle under their own weight when cooling. These are biscuits with a small amount of flour and starch, as well as protein biscuits. It is usually recommended to cool them upside down - to do this, immediately after baking, turn the mold over and place it on bowls so that the sponge cake does not touch them. In this position, the bottom and sides of the biscuit are glued to the mold; it does not fall out, but also does not settle under its own weight. Please note that in this case it is important to choose the correct size of the mold so that the sponge cake does not turn out higher than the edges and can be turned over.
DISADVANTAGE: Sometimes it is difficult to separate the sponge cake from the pan; Silicone molds are not suitable for such baking.
Bakery
Always preheat the oven to 180-200°C in advance. It is advisable to bake biscuits on the middle level of the oven; you can use convection. Try not to open the oven during the first 15 minutes of baking to avoid cooling the air. You can check the readiness of the biscuit 25–30 minutes after the start of cooking. The finished biscuit is always evenly heaped and golden brown. Pierce it in several places (closer to the middle) with a toothpick; there should be no sticky dough on it. You can also press with your palm, the finished biscuit is elastic and durable.
IMPORTANT!
To ensure that the biscuit does not become soggy during soaking and is strong and elastic, it is advisable to let it sit for several hours. For cakes, I usually bake the sponge in the evening and leave it in the kitchen overnight. Please note that the biscuit should not dry out - for this, if the air in the kitchen is dry, you can put the biscuit in a bag after it has completely cooled.
publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber"
How to cut a biscuit?
One four-egg sponge cake baked in a tin with a diameter of 20 cm can usually be cut into three layers. To ensure that the cuts are even and the cakes are the same thickness, use a few simple techniques.
Place the sponge bottom side up - it's very flat and your cake will be flat on top too. It is convenient to use a sheet of baking paper, a flat plate or a wire rack as a base, the main thing is that you can easily turn the cake along with the base. Prepare a knife - it is highly desirable that it be sharp, with a blade that is longer than the diameter of the biscuit. A bread knife with a wavy blade works very well.
Using a knife, mark cutting lines about 1 cm deep around the circumference of the biscuit.
Insert a knife into the cut and cut, carefully turning the sponge and pressing the knife against the bottom cake, it should go exactly along the marked line.
Problems?
- The dough is too liquid - the whites or yolks were not beaten well, the dough was stirred for too long;
- The sponge cake does not rise well - the dough was mixed for a long time, the eggs were not beaten well, the oven was too cold;
- The sponge cake sagged a lot after baking - the dough was poorly baked, there was not enough flour or starch;
- The sponge cake has settled in the oven - the oven is too hot;
- The biscuit crumbles a lot - too much starch.
