1-2-3-4 Cake By James Beard~ Chef & Cooking T Recipe
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Ingredients : 1-2-3-4 Cake By James Beard~ Chef & Cooking T Recipe
FOR THREE 9X1/2 INCH DEEP PA
1 tbsp Butter, softened
2 tbsp Flour
FOR THE CAKE
3 cups Cake Flour, sifted *Note:1
4 tsp Baking powder, Double-
Acting
1/2 tsp Salt
8 oz Butter, unsalted (2 sticks) at room temperature
2 cups Sugar, granulated
4 medium Eggs, at room temperature
1 cup Milk, at room temperature
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract, (or 1 tspn)
FOR THE FILLING AND TOPPING
3/4 cup Orange juice, strained
2 tbsp Lemon juice
3/4 cup Sugar, granulated
1 tbsp Orange rind, finely grated
James Beard's 1-2-3-4 Layer Cake; Uses three 9x1/2 inch deep cake pans.
Makes: One 3-layered cake; Serves 12 depending on thickness of slices.
*Note:1. If you can't find cake flour, the same amount of All-purpose
flour can be substituted. * Directions * Preheat the oven to 350dF.
Using your hands, butter the bottom and sides of all 3 layer-cake pans
with softened butter; sprinkle flour inside, then shake pans so you get a
thin coating on the butter. Tip out any excess! Now to sift your flour.
Lay a large piece of waxed paper on a board, put a dry measuring cup in
the center, hold a sifter directly over it, scoop cake flour from the
package into the sifter, and sift the flour directly into the cup. When
the cup is full, draw the back of a knife blade lightly across the top of
the cup (don't shake the flour down, or it will become dense) and then tip
the measured flour into a mixing bowl. Repeat with the other 2 cups of
flour (you can put any flour that spilled onto the waxed paper back in the
sifter). When you have 3 cups of sifted flour in the bowl, put the baking
powder and salt in the sifter, holding it over the mixing bowl, and sift
it over the flour. Then, still using your hands, mix the baking powder
and salt lightly with the flour. Next, put the butter into a second,
large mixing bowl. If it is very firm (it shouldn't be, if you have left
it out of the fridge), squeeze it through your fingers until it softens
up. When it is soft enough to work, form your right hand into a big fork,
as it were, and cream the butter. This means that you beat it firmly and
quickly with your hand, beating and aerating it, until it becomes light,
creamy and fluffy. Then whirl your fingers around like a whisk so the
butter forms a circle in the bowl. Gradually cream the 2 cups of sugar
into the butter with the same fork-like motion, beating until the mixture
is very light and fluffy. As the sugar blends in it will change the color
of the butter to a much lighter color, almost white. Now wash and dry
your hands thoroughly. Separate the eggs as you would for a souffle',
letting the whites slip though slightly parted fingers into a small bowl
and dropping the yokes into a second, larger bowl. Beat the yokes for a
few minutes with a whisk until they are well blended. Then, again with
your hand, beat them very thoroughly into the butter-sugar mixture. Now
beat in the milk alternately with the sifted flour -- first one, then the
other -- this time keeping your fingers close together as if your hand
were a wooden spatula. Beat, beat, beat until the batter is well mixed,
then add the vanilla and beat that in for 1 or 2 minutes. Put the egg
whites in your beating bowl and beat them with a large whisk or and
electric hand beater until they mount first to soft, drooping peaks and
then to firm, glossy peaks. Do not over beat so that they are stiff and
dry! Tip the beaten whites onto the cake batter and fold them in with your
hand. Slightly cup your hand and use the side like a spatula to cut down
through the whites and batter to the bottom of the bowl and then flop them
over with your cupped hand, rotating the bowl with your other hand as you
do so ~- exactly the technique used when folding egg whites into a souffle
mixture with a rubber spatula. Repeat this very lightly and quickly until
the whites and batter are thoroughly folded and blended. Once you have
mastered this hand technique you can use it for souffles. Again using
your hand like a spatula, pour and scrape the batter into three prepared
pans, dividing it equally between them. Give the filled pans a little
knock on the countertop to level the batter. Put the 3 pans in the center
of the oven, or, if you have to use more than 1 rack, stagger them on the
2 middle racks of the oven so they do not overlap. Bake for 25 minutes,
then touch the center of each cake lightly with your fingertip. If it
springs back, it is done. Remove the pans and put them on wire cake rakes
to cool for a few minutes, then loosen the layers by running the flat of a
knife blade aroundJames Beard's 1-2-3-4 Layer Cake; Uses three 9x1/2 inch
deeptemperature Converted by MC_Buster.
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