A friend of mine bought me some cupcakes from local bakery Sweet 16th to help celebrate my recent *mumble*th birthday. Included in the bunch was a chocolate cupcake with cream cheese frosting. The cake was moist yet fluffy with a deep chocolate-y flavor but not too sweet and not too rich. Excellent.
But it made me wonder (aloud, as usual)--if a bakery can make good chocolate cupcakes, why is it that most chocolate cakes are so terrible?
Maybe terrible is too strong a word, but my observation has been that they're bland and (worse) have the consistency and texture of a cheap sponge. Not fluffy and dense like a white cake or even a cake made from a box mix.
So since I was thinking aloud at this point, another friend asserted that it was because chocolate cakes freeze differently than white cakes. White cakes stand up better to the freezing process, but it changes the texture (and in my opinion, the taste) of a chocolate cake. And that most commercial bakeries, because of volume do make cakes ahead of time and freeze them. But their cupcakes are usually fresh.
This makes a lot of sense logically, but I wonder about the chemistry? physics? behind this theory. Is it the baked cake that is frozen or the mix? What happens in that freezer that makes such a difference? Google has been no help...anyone have some science knowledge to pass along?
5 comments:
Well, I do know that they (bakeries, restaurants, etc.)freeze the baked cakes, usually just the layers alone. Then when one is needed, the layers are defrosted and then frosted with icing. Sorry, can't help with the scientific aspect of it.
I'm not a huge chocolate cake fan myself.
I'm not the science expert either, but I do know that I love the vegan chocolate cake recipe from Moosewood. (And I don't even really like cake!)
I usually find chocolate cake a little too rich, and prefer chocolate cupcakes because they have a higher frosting to cake ratio. But I understand what you're talking about with the texture, though...somehow it does seem different in a big cake.
I really don't like bakery cake (or cupcakes) that much at all either. Rather make my own or have someone else make one for me.
it probably has something to do with the fact that chocolate contains fat within the ingredients...not jus added later....the larger surface area probably does not allow for slow cooling of the fat
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