Cake—it doesn’t matter what variety, whether or not it is vanilla, chocolate cherry, or coconut—will virtually at all times come out higher should you line the baking pans with parchment. It could appear thriftier to butter the pans and end with a dusting of flour, however the mixture encourages vital Maillard browning, which results in the event of a thick, darkish crust that detracts from the lightness of the crumb inside and contributes to a way of dryness.
Except for selecting the best pan, a parchment liner with a lightweight coat of pan spray or oil is one of the simplest ways to cut back browning within the outer crust of a layer cake. This retains the underside and sides of the cake delicate and tender, and the inside mild and moist. Limiting crust formation in layer truffles may also cut back the ugly look and dry texture of a number of layers of a darkish backside crust.
You’ll be able to definitely purchase ready-made parchment rounds, however I haven’t got a lot space for storing in my kitchen, so I favor to make my very own as wanted. It isn’t precisely rocket science, however there is a wiser technique to go about it than you may anticipate. And no, it would not contain any convoluted origami.
An ordinary parchment roll is 15 inches large, so, for a two-layer cake, our first intuition is likely to be to drag out a 16-inch sheet, fold it in half, hint, and minimize—carried out. Drawback is, that generates numerous waste: greater than 50 sq. inches of scrap. A greater approach is to drag out a sheet of parchment, fold it right into a triangle, then minimize or tear it free; this requires not more than 14 inches of parchment (much less should you’re strategic about it).
Decreasing two inches of size will get rid of over 30 sq. inches of waste, a financial savings that can multiply with each layer cake (which actually provides up for these of us who wish to make birthday truffles for family and friends). The triangle fold can be an immensely useful trick once you’re working with precut parchment sheets that in any other case appear too quick to accommodate a couple of eight-inch spherical. So do not consider parchment as a waste of time or sources. Relatively, think about it a worthy funding that may make an actual distinction within the tenderness and look of your favourite layer truffles.