There are few people in the world who can indifferently walk past a department with sweets in a store. And especially - a counter with cakes. The huge variety of this baking charms, attracts the eye, makes the stomach shrink convulsively. What types of cakes are there ? How can they be decorated? What kind of filling is permissible to put there? All of these details are below.
What are the cakes?
There are several classifications of this treat. Firstly, they can be divided according to the method of preparation, secondly, according to the type of cakes, and thirdly, according to form. There are also different cakes depending on the design and its complexity, filling, taste, decoration. Finally, at the place of manufacture - there are store cakes, and there are homemade ones. The following is a slightly more detailed account of each cake classification.
According to the method of preparation
This classification includes three points. So what are the cakes?
- Those that are prepared immediately as a whole. They are based on sweet yeast dough, often they add jam or jam. At the exit, such a cake is usually decorated with berries or icing, but the focus here is on the test - the more original its taste, the better.
- Cakes that are prepared in separate cakes. Everything is clear here: first they made one cake, put it to cool, at this time they do the next. Ready cakes are soaked in cream or condensed milk. As an example of such a cake, you can bring the beloved by many, "Napoleon". For the first time, cooking in this way began in Italy, and from there recipes already spread throughout the world.
- Combined cakes. They differ from the rest in the complexity of the cooking process. As a rule, this applies more to decoration. Here everything is done in parts, and then it is completed together - the base, the filling, the cream, the decorations ... Among the cakes of this group are cheesecakes, waffle cakes from two, three or more floors.
Cake cakes
What are the cake layers? They are of four types. Firstly, biscuit - the most popular and common. Cakes on this basis are usually very tender, and nuts, cocoa, vanilla, coffee are added to the dough to give the best result. The filling for this type of goodies is usually made chocolate or yogurt, less often - from cream.
The next type of cakes is waffle. Such cakes are easy to prepare even for novice cooks - wafer cakes coated with chocolate or coffee are stacked on top of each other. Plus of this variety is the possibility of long-term storage, minus - they obviously lose to the taste to others. Although, of course, all this is not for everybody.
Shortcakes are made from friable shortcrust pastry without adding any impregnation. The filling is usually cream or fruit.
And finally, the fourth variety is cottage cheese cakes. Here, a mixture of cottage cheese and flour with the addition of fruits acts as the basis (of course, it is possible without them). Baking is usually decorated with icing.
Cakes by design complexity
What are the cakes in design? This is a "multi-storey building." The simplest ones that consist of one tier. There can be any number of tiers - two, three, four, five, ten. It all depends on the imagination and skill of the pastry chef.
The most important thing that you should not forget about when preparing a high cake is that it needs a rigid frame that helps to keep all the "floors" and prevents them from crushing each other. The more tiers, the greater the complexity of cooking. Often multi-tiered cakes are ordered for a wedding or birthday.
What are the cakes in shape?
The form of baking is very different: round, square, triangular, oval, rectangular. In addition, delicacies of the most incredible figures are baked: in the form of animals, cars, numbers, various objects. Here again, it all depends on the skill of the baker. And, of course, the more elaborate the form, the more difficult it is to make a cake.
Cakes of the latter variety are often made to order. They are very popular at holidays - weddings, birthdays (especially for children).
Toppings
What are the fillings for cakes? In fact, it all depends on taste preferences and imagination. You can start a treat with anything and any way. The following are just some of the products that are acceptable to use.
- Fruits.
- Yogurt or sour cream.
- Chocolate or cocoa.
- Condensed milk - both regular and boiled.
- Nuts.
- Vanilla or cinnamon.
- Honey.
The list goes on and on.
Jewelry
That's where the real scope of imagination for the chef is in decorating the cake! Fortunately, now there are plenty of opportunities to decorate your masterpiece more originally. So, what are the decorations for cakes?
First of all, you need to remember the mastic. This confectionery material is prepared on the basis of powdered sugar. It is used most often for jewelry - mastic is very plastic, so with its help you can create truly intricate things. In working with her, the main thing is to be able to sculpt, and then real magical figures will come out from the hands of the creator. The difference and a definite plus of mastic is that, wrapping it with cling film, it can be kept in the refrigerator for three whole months.
Various mastics are sold in stores ready-made, take and sculpt. If you really want to do it yourself, then this is possible. Three products are needed for this: milk powder, condensed milk and icing sugar. They are thoroughly mixed, and dough is molded from the resulting mass. That's all the mastic! It is very important to follow some rules when working with it. First, roll mastic can only be on cling film, sprinkled with powdered sugar. Secondly, it quickly hardens in the open air, so the unnecessary mass is immediately put into a bag. Thirdly, to make bulky and voluminous elements from it (especially without the appropriate skills) is not worth it - they just crack.
Another type of decoration is cream. Lettering, patterns, flowers are made on cakes with the help of a cream. There are also a great many of them, but when choosing, you need to remember the following: the cream should not be fluid and not settling, otherwise all the work will go down the drain. Therefore, it is better to give preference to butter cream or meringue - they, like mastic, can be purchased at the store or prepared on their own.
You can also decorate the cake with icing - it will turn out to be very smooth, fondant (it’s easy to cook, you can store it for a long time, which is the secret of its popularity), with fruits. A mix of fruits and berries gives the cake a fresh and beautiful look. In addition, fruits can be simply laid out on top of a treat, and you can create whole crafts from them, for example, flowers. Also, chocolate and various sweets, nuts, whipped cream are often used in the
form of cake
decorating .
These are just brief answers to the question of what kind of cakes are. The preparation of this delicacy makes it possible to show imagination, to feel like an artist. And in the course of experiments, new bold ideas can be born, as well as variations of everyone's favorite sweets.