What goes on top

You can use sauces, creams and frostings (icings) to dress up your baking efforts or help

disguise near-disasters. Choose something that complements your cake. You don't need to follow

recipe suggestions. For a moist, fairly rich coffee cake, sauce or frosting is not really needed, but a

thick dripping sauce in a contrasting color makes the cake more professional looking, more

glamorous, more appetizing and more flavorful. You can even nap the plate with a dripping sauce

like classy chefs do, and top each serving with a contrasting color of dripping sauce, just as in

crêpes.

For the neutral butter and sponge cakes, you can use virtually any type of frosting. Ice only

after the cake is at room temperature to prevent melting the frosting. Generally count on little less

than half of the frosting for the layers and the rest for the top and the sides. If you want to make the

effort, an exceptional cake or torte has a different filling between layers and a different

complementary frosting on top. This is easy for pastry bakeries where they have many different

kinds of frostings and fillings in the refrigerater at any one time, but in our home kitchens we have

to make each small batch individually. For special occasions it is worth the effort.

Always use icing sugar for the frosting. In the frosting ingredients there is not enough

moisture, and granulated sugar doesn't dissolve during creaming with butter—you end up with a

grainy, sandy texture. For cooked frostings, however, where sugar is part of the cooking process and

there is enough liquid, you can use granulated sugar.

For convenience to apply the frosting, set the cake on a serving plate, then the plate on a

lazy susan rotating the turntable slowly while spreading frosting on the sides and top. Some bakers

hold the cake plate on their palm to spread frosting on the side, then set it on a lazy susan for top

frosting. A good experts’ trick is to start off with spreading a thinnest layer first, then chill the cake.

This thin layer absorbs crumbs, evens rough surfaces and, once chilled, gives a solid foundation for

the rest of the frosting.

Meringues

Meringues and pie crusts have one thing in common. Both are simple once you master the

technique and you remember a few points in preparation. But many, even experienced bakers, have

problems with both. Making meringue is, indeed, very simple. Whip the egg whites and sugar,

spread it on top, bake it and you have a nice meringue. At what stage you stop whipping the egg

whites is crucial (see Foam from Egg Whites, above).

Even with the correctly whipped foam, many home bakers have problem after baking—their

meringue either weeps on the bottom (moisture leeks out) or beads on the top (little bead-like drops

pop up over the surface). Weeping is the result of underbaking the meringue—moisture left in the

foam after baking leaks out on standing. If the base under the foam was cold, that may have

prevented the foam to fully cook on the bottom. To prevent it, have the base warm or hot before

spreading the egg foam. Sprinkling the top surface of the filling with a dry cake, graham cracker, or

even bread crumbs also helps. The crumbs absorb excess moisture.

The cause of beading is the opposite—overbaking. Too much heat and the egg white

proteins tighten and (on the molecular scale) squeeze all moisture out. The result: dry meringue and

moist beading. Avoid the problem by baking at the correct temperature and just until slightly brown.

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