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4 Levels of Birthday Cake: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious - YouTube
Channel: unknown
[2]
[Music]
[4]
i'm emily and i'm a level one chef i'm
[6]
gabrielle and i'm a level two chef i'm
[8]
penny and i'm a chef at the institute of
[10]
culinary education i've been a chef for
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16 years
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today i'm going to be making a regular
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old vanilla cake with sprinkles in it
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i'm going to be making a chocolate cake
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with peanut butter frosting which is
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really kind of a traditional birthday
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cake in my family the birthday cake that
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i'm going to make today is gonna be a
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light luscious white cake soaked in
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saint germain the cake is going to have
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sprinkles on the inside of it and on top
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it's gonna have beautiful piped
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buttercream flowers this cake is gonna
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blow your mind
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[Music]
[48]
normally i would use a box mix they're
[51]
good but here it's a very special day it
[53]
is epicurious birthday
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so i'm making one from scratch if you're
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gonna have a birthday cake like you know
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you just gotta go for it so the first
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thing i'm gonna do is mix together my
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dry ingredients flour baking powder and
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salt
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i'm gonna be using a traditional
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creaming method what i would call the
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basic cake baking method i'm gonna go
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ahead and put all my dry ingredients
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into my mixer i'm gonna start with my
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sugar cocoa powder baking soda cake
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flour and all-purpose flour and this mix
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gives me
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a combination between a stable
[86]
cake that has some body and also that
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has lightness salt you always need some
[91]
salt sweet things with a little salt
[93]
taste better always salt almost forgot
[96]
baking powder
[98]
powdered peanut butter this kind of
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gives you the flavors that you want
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without having to worry about dealing
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with the texture of regular peanut
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butter and then my all-purpose flour
[108]
okay so now everything's mixed together
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i'm going to add my butter so the next
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thing i'm going to do is combine my
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butter and sugar this is a fancy one
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look at those settings
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nope nope that's the way that you okay
[122]
cool
[123]
got it we're good we're good
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sugar i think some people go for a
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really long time with the mixer but i
[129]
don't know why so i don't um it already
[131]
smells good now i'm gonna go ahead and
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move into my wet ingredients and the
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first step to that is egg whites
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so i'm gonna crack my eggs on the
[140]
counter but never on the side of the
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bowl because it's not splintering the
[144]
shell as much i would love to tell you
[146]
what the secret to not getting shell is
[148]
uh in but i feel like if i say out loud
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anything about how to not get shell in i
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will immediately get shell
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i'm gonna just go ahead and whisk these
[155]
first and then that way i don't have to
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worry about doing that with everything
[158]
else trying to get in i'm gonna put a
[160]
glove on and then very gently i'm gonna
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go in
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i pinch with my fingers underneath
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and drop those into a bowl to make a
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delicious custard or something else with
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later that's egg number one
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now egg number two my
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whole milk
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my egg whites vanilla bean paste i
[180]
prefer to use vanilla bean paste i find
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that it just has a much stronger vanilla
[185]
flavor when i'm choosing between
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extracts and pastes the next thing i'm
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going to do is add my vanilla into my
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milk boop that's all so i have my
[193]
vegetable oil that's going to make it
[195]
nice and moist and then my buttermilk
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which is the key ingredient here because
[199]
the buttermilk is what really gives it
[201]
that richness and that moisture i'm
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going to alternate adding my flour
[205]
mixture and my milk mixture and i'm
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going to start slow so i don't wear all
[208]
the flour and you just have to kind of
[210]
work with it and ease things in i'm just
[213]
reading the internet and doing what i'm
[214]
told and i'm gonna mix this until i
[217]
don't see the butter anymore when i add
[219]
the milk i like to turn it on to stir
[222]
and i like to stream it down the side of
[225]
the bowl
[226]
and i would describe that as a batter
[229]
made now i have my hot water and i'm
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gonna pour it in really slowly because i
[234]
don't want it to accidentally cook the
[236]
eggs that i have in here slowly start to
[239]
add
[240]
my wet ingredients in my batter is made
[243]
except i need my sprinkles so i'm just
[246]
gonna gently fold these in because if i
[248]
beat these in this will just be a brown
[250]
mess instead of a beautiful rainbow of
[252]
cake this is looking really smooth and
[254]
that's what i'm kind of looking for i'm
[257]
not looking for anything specific in
[259]
terms of the look of the batter it's
[260]
really more just letting it go for two
[262]
solid minutes after the addition of each
[264]
section of the milk okay so i like to
[266]
bake my cake in individual layers when
[269]
you bake it in thinner layers you just
[270]
get a better bake because it doesn't
[272]
spend as long in the oven so it doesn't
[274]
dry out as much it might not seem even
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but it's a superpower it's even
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one of the most crucial steps i think in
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baking a cake is making sure you can get
[285]
it out of the cake pan i'm also going to
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add some cocoa powder and then that will
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also help to get the cake out once it's
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baked i have a greased and a
[297]
parchment-papered pan and i'm gonna put
[299]
my batter right in there just kind of
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work it towards the edges evenly i think
[303]
the main goal is just making sure that
[305]
they're even and you do have enough room
[307]
for them to grow even it out with a
[309]
spatula and then i might give it like a
[310]
little shake i kind of like to give them
[312]
a little tap tap the corners are kind of
[314]
hard to spatula into yeah you can be as
[316]
aggressive as you want
[320]
cake levels itself i'm gonna go bake it
[322]
in the oven at 350 degrees standard oven
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for like 35 to 40 minutes my cake is in
[327]
the oven so i'm gonna start working on
[329]
my frosting i'm gonna be making a
[330]
traditional american buttercream and i'm
[332]
gonna be making it pink today i'm making
[334]
a swiss meringue buttercream it's going
[336]
to be a little bit less sweet than your
[339]
traditional buttercream which is going
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to pair beautifully with the chocolatey
[343]
savoriness of the cake my buttercream is
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a royal icing that has butter added to
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it i'm not 100 sure what royal icing is
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but it does sound
[353]
pretty fancy royal icing is something
[355]
you might traditionally see on decorated
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cookies it'll dry firm and it'll be
[360]
something that will last a really long
[361]
time but when we add butter to it we
[364]
turn it into an icing that doesn't have
[366]
any of the grittiness that american
[368]
buttercream traditionally has i have my
[370]
butter at room temperature so it'll be
[371]
nice and easy to cream so the first
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thing i'm going to do is add my salt and
[374]
vanilla and cream these things together
[377]
so what i'm going to do next is create a
[380]
double boiler i'm going to make sure i'm
[382]
controlling the temperature that the
[384]
sugar is melting and combining with the
[386]
egg whites i'm going to start by adding
[389]
my powdered sugar
[390]
egg whites
[392]
and i'm also going to add my salt at
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this point the salt is for flavor for
[397]
sure but it's also to help me break up
[399]
the proteins and the eggs and to get
[402]
them going
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having the brown sugar as opposed to
[406]
just a traditional white sugar is going
[408]
to give me a little bit more of that
[409]
depth of flavor that i'm looking for and
[412]
again this is made with love so if it's
[413]
not perfect i'll just you know that's
[415]
what happens but also food with threats
[417]
usually works out too you will be
[419]
delicious so i'm just gonna let this go
[421]
and it's going to take a while you're
[422]
going to feel like this is not happening
[424]
and it's never going to happen and i
[425]
promise you it will basically we're
[428]
making a meringue right now and we're
[430]
going to start off kind of slow
[432]
and then we're going to go ahead and get
[433]
it going the next thing i'm going to do
[435]
is start adding in my sugar a little bit
[437]
at a time uh and this is icing sugar
[439]
powdered sugar i like this speed we're
[442]
going to keep it we're going to cruise
[443]
so you know you're starting to get close
[445]
with the royal when you start to see it
[447]
kind of holding its shape around the
[449]
exterior of the bowl okay let's see
[451]
where we're at so see how this is being
[453]
held up it's being suspended into the
[455]
air now i'm going to start adding a lot
[457]
of butter
[459]
and while this is mixing i can go ahead
[462]
and add my vanilla bean paste just
[464]
saying you can add a little bit of booze
[466]
to this too wouldn't be a terrible thing
[469]
just a little splash of milk
[472]
all right i think this is pretty much
[473]
ready except i need to add a couple
[475]
drops of my food coloring gonna make it
[477]
pink so that epicurus will know i care
[479]
we wanted a little bit more of this
[481]
texture so that it's nice for piping
[484]
buttercream is done
[485]
so what i'm gonna do is take half of
[487]
this buttercream and set that aside i'm
[490]
gonna have chocolate buttercream on the
[492]
inside and vanilla on the outside for
[495]
the aesthetics
[496]
time to put in the rest of my
[497]
ingredients which is going to be my
[499]
powdered peanut butter
[501]
my vanilla and my salt
[503]
and all i'm doing is just mixing this
[504]
together until it's good
[506]
so my buttercream is ready this looks
[508]
done and now i have this really
[510]
beautiful frosting that has this nice
[512]
meringue base
[515]
all right i declare that pink
[517]
buttercream all right so now it's time
[519]
to assemble my cake and my cakes turned
[522]
out beautifully this is always to me the
[524]
most difficult phase of cake baking uh
[526]
do i just turn it over i might just turn
[528]
it over i think it'll just come out if i
[533]
i was going for more of a rounded square
[535]
anyway i have everything ready to go the
[537]
first thing that i'm going to do is mix
[540]
up my soak for the cake and for that i'm
[543]
going to use simple syrup and saint
[545]
germain elderflower liqueur it's very
[548]
floral
[549]
come on
[555]
by baking the cakes my way they're very
[557]
even we don't have to trim off excess
[560]
cake and it just bakes really evenly
[562]
nice and fluffy basically the first
[564]
thing i'm going to do is go ahead and
[566]
trim off this bubble layer where it kind
[568]
of rose up because i want them to be
[570]
nice and even layers
[572]
gorgeous look at that
[574]
so my cake is a surprise inside cake
[577]
which means that when you cut into it
[578]
you get an explosion of something in
[580]
this case it's our really pretty fancy
[582]
golden sprinkles i have four layers of
[584]
cake one of which will not be
[587]
tampered with at all but the other three
[590]
are going to have a hole punched out of
[592]
the center
[593]
gently
[598]
look at that it's like i've done it
[600]
before
[600]
okay you pink buttercream let's go
[603]
so technique might be like a strong word
[606]
for how i frost things it's more of um
[609]
a dump and spread
[611]
i'm gonna just get a nice big dollop of
[613]
this
[615]
put it in the middle i'm gonna just go
[617]
ahead and start working it
[619]
toward the edges
[621]
one cake layer goes down turn it upside
[623]
down i always turn it upside down
[626]
because this part of the cake was the
[628]
part that was in touch with the
[629]
parchment it's always even it's always
[631]
flat and it's got the more porous
[633]
texture cold cake warm syrup if the
[636]
syrup and the cake are both cold
[639]
it's not going to sink in
[641]
now i'm going to go ahead and take my
[643]
frosting and start just applying it to
[645]
the outside i'm going to make my what's
[649]
called a crumb coat i like the idea of
[652]
it being a little bit more rustic i'm
[653]
going to go ahead and start creating
[656]
this crumb layer look it's visible
[659]
on the bottom and so i'm going to try
[661]
and make that a little bit more visible
[663]
on the top layer as well and by the way
[666]
this is how you hold an offset spatula
[669]
not like this it was meant to be like
[671]
this so it moves your hand away from the
[674]
cake this is going to come as a shock to
[675]
a lot of people but i'm not really the
[676]
best at frosting cakes now layer two
[679]
goes over
[680]
and we repeat this process again turn
[683]
the turntable
[685]
let it do the work for me one more time
[689]
and my sprinkles i'm gonna lie
[692]
down delicately in the center
[695]
i'm gonna pick it up
[698]
and then
[700]
fill the center of my cake with
[702]
sprinkles
[704]
frosting cake it's like a bob ross
[705]
painting you know like there are no
[707]
mistakes just happy little accidents and
[710]
my final cake we're going to go on top
[713]
saint germain sugar syrup i'm going to
[715]
try to put as much icing on top as i
[717]
think i need to crumb coat the whole
[719]
cake don't be afraid to be the boss of
[721]
your cake so this is going to hang out
[723]
in the freezer for about 15 minutes it's
[726]
going to get nice and stable for me so
[728]
i'll be able to put my next coat of
[729]
icing on and it won't move around
[732]
thin layer on the side
[734]
but a little bit more icing this time
[736]
pile it up pretty high on top this time
[738]
though i want a thicker coating and it's
[740]
going to look a little varied but that's
[742]
sort of look i'm going for i'm not
[744]
trying to make it look perfect
[746]
perfection is for level three now i
[748]
switch tools it's flexible and i just
[751]
leave that here
[753]
and i spin my turntable and it totally
[755]
smooths itself i don't have to work that
[757]
hard same thing here up against the side
[759]
of the cake and spin the cake i'll have
[762]
this really cute swirl in the middle
[765]
now if you don't leave a little bit of
[767]
cake showing people aren't going to know
[769]
that there's sprinkles inside and that's
[772]
really important
[773]
now my final touch to this cake is going
[777]
to be to add a bunch of edible glitter
[779]
there's my cake ready for
[781]
its final decoration it's time to move
[784]
beyond what you see and make it
[786]
beautiful my mona lisa i have some of
[789]
the frosting and i have some chocolate
[791]
that we're gonna shave on top fancy
[794]
i can
[795]
practice what it's gonna look like oh i
[797]
like that let's start out with
[799]
everybody's favorite rose
[802]
what if it's like this is this pretty
[805]
when you're decorating
[807]
a cake it's good to have flowers of
[808]
different sizes it adds visual interest
[811]
but it also helps you when you have
[812]
little nooks and crannies where you need
[814]
to hide something i'm not doing any of
[816]
those things i'm gonna just try writing
[817]
happy birthday epicurious on here with a
[819]
gel writing pen and then putting a bunch
[820]
of sprinkles everywhere because i'm
[821]
basically a child
[824]
that's kind of big that's okay it's fun
[826]
and i'm gonna pipe a bound of icing it's
[828]
gonna help me get some height so i'm
[830]
gonna start with my biggest flower which
[832]
is my hero flower wow that is really not
[835]
how you write a pea some of my little
[837]
flowers go in my nooks and grannies and
[840]
i'll add a few
[842]
vines
[843]
this is level one flowers i think for me
[846]
just using the star tip and sort of
[848]
making these little ruffly roses is just
[851]
all i need don't be afraid to overlap
[854]
cute how cute
[856]
i'm very happy with that as you can see
[858]
i was obviously
[860]
an art major in school i think that
[863]
using a dark chocolate bar is gonna
[865]
bring out those flavors really nicely
[867]
okay cool i think that's a perfect
[868]
birthday cake and i have no questions
[870]
i'm just going to add some sprinkles all
[872]
over it now
[873]
and that's it how do i know when it's
[875]
done
[876]
it's done and this is my birthday cake
[880]
and this is my birthday cake
[884]
and this is a penny stankowitz birthday
[886]
cake
[895]
[Music]
[896]
all right we have a birthday cake
[898]
because it's epicurious birthday what's
[902]
any birthday cake without a couple
[904]
candles
[905]
happy birthday epicurious happy birthday
[909]
happy birthday
[911]
[Music]
[913]
and now it's time to taste my cake
[916]
now i'm ready
[917]
[Music]
[919]
are you ready for this
[921]
there's the magic
[923]
let's eat some birthday cake here we go
[931]
wow
[933]
i think that's mighty fine
[936]
okay this is really moist it's really
[939]
nice and rich and chocolatey
[941]
and
[942]
i feel like the peanut butter frosting
[945]
is just so light and airy and fluffy and
[947]
silky the buttercream is like delicious
[950]
it's got just the right amount of salt
[952]
and i mean look at those sprinkles how
[953]
could you say no to that it's delicious
[955]
it's bright it's light the cake being a
[958]
white cake makes the chocolate stand out
[961]
even more the saint germain has soaked
[964]
in and it's added this floralliness and
[966]
it just tastes like joy that's as good
[968]
as my wedding cake of course my wedding
[970]
cake also came from a grocery store but
[974]
birthday cake says celebration like no
[976]
other dessert let's see how each of our
[978]
three chefs made theirs
[983]
emily made her vanilla birthday cake
[985]
using a traditional creaming method what
[988]
i would call the basic cake baking
[989]
method she creamed softened butter
[991]
together with white crystalline sugar
[993]
this added volume because the sugar
[995]
crystals make the pockets in the
[997]
softened butter allowing air to enter
[1000]
and lighten the mixture eggs are added
[1001]
to emulsify or hold the sugar and butter
[1004]
together in suspension this ensures that
[1006]
the batter will hold the additional
[1007]
liquid and flour to make a delicious
[1009]
cake emily alternately added her dry and
[1011]
wet ingredients to the creamed mixture
[1013]
this reduced the amount of mixing of the
[1015]
flour decreasing gluten formation
[1018]
gabrielle used a combination of baking
[1020]
powder and soda in this case the baking
[1022]
powder does most of the leavening the
[1024]
baking soda contributes to the leavening
[1026]
as well while also neutralizing the
[1028]
acidic ingredients like the buttermilk
[1030]
and cocoa powder this is a runny loose
[1033]
batter which will induce lots of steam
[1034]
to assist with leavening during baking
[1037]
and give the cake a higher domed top
[1039]
penny used what we call a reverse
[1041]
creaming method for mixing her birthday
[1043]
cake with this method softened butter is
[1045]
added directly to the dry flour and
[1047]
sugar mixture with some of the milk and
[1049]
egg mixture to initially moisten the
[1051]
batter the idea is to coat the gluten
[1053]
proteins in the flour with fat from the
[1055]
butter which modifies hydration of these
[1058]
proteins and thereby limits gluten
[1060]
development the texture is like emily's
[1062]
conventional cake but slightly more
[1064]
delicate with an ever so spongy quality
[1066]
that really elevates penny's cake to
[1069]
level three it just bakes really evenly
[1071]
nice and fluffy
[1075]
gabrielle made peanut butter swiss
[1077]
meringue frosting it's based on whipped
[1080]
egg whites which contain proteins some
[1082]
of which are attracted to water and some
[1084]
that are repelled when you whip them and
[1086]
introduce air the water loving proteins
[1088]
cling to the water in the egg white
[1090]
while the water repelling proteins cling
[1092]
to the air with extended whipping more
[1094]
bubbles surrounded by proteins are
[1096]
formed and it fluffs right up she mixed
[1099]
her egg whites with brown sugar which is
[1101]
white sugar coated with molasses so it
[1104]
has a darker color with a slight
[1106]
mineraly tangy flavor profile gradually
[1109]
adding the butter in small amounts once
[1111]
the meringue cools is essential
[1113]
otherwise you'll deflate your meringue
[1114]
and get a smooth sweet marshmallowy
[1117]
concoction that may taste good but won't
[1119]
be thick enough to smoothly glide over
[1121]
your cake it's delicious and silky
[1124]
and smooth
[1126]
penny made two types of royal icing
[1128]
buttercream for her beautiful level
[1130]
three four-tiered birthday cake i make
[1133]
good cake typically royal icing is a
[1135]
smooth stiff and very stable mixture of
[1138]
just egg whites and confectioners sugar
[1140]
it's so stable because the proteins in
[1142]
the egg whites combine with the sugar
[1144]
and harden quickly which means timing
[1146]
matters when you're working with royal
[1148]
icing penny added luxurious amounts of
[1150]
butter to give it shine and soften the
[1153]
texture a bit making a birthday cake is
[1155]
such a happy way to celebrate someone
[1158]
you love or in this case something we
[1161]
love
[1161]
happy birthday epic epicurious and may
[1164]
you have many many more
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