4 Levels of Layer Cake: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

hi i'm la and i'm a level one chef hi i'm daniel and i'm a level two chef hi i'm bill i've been a professional baker for over 10 years today i'm going to be making a vegan cake there's lots of rum lots of coconut but no dairy i have recently discovered the amazing world of plant-based nutrition so i'm making a japanese matcha crepe layer cake basically it is a cake entirely made of crepes that looks gorgeous and you can definitely post on instagram when you're done i love layer cakes because the more layers the more frosting you get you know today i'm making an eat-and-mess cake this is actually a recipe that i created for my former restaurant mimi steiner in brooklyn it's layers of lemon poppy seed meringue custard buttercream and fresh strawberry jam first things first the batter before i do anything i love to coat my pans i spray the pan dust it with flour that way it makes it easier for the cake to come out at the end first we're going to make meringue we're going to start by separating our eggs i know a lot of people have many ways that they like to separate eggs but i find the easiest is to just put the egg in your hand and let the white fall right through your fingers so for meringue i'm going to start this on a low speed and then gradually speed it up as it gets frothier and frothier okay so eggs are in i'm going to add the milk now but next i've got some flour and i definitely got some on the table that's just going to go in there and i'm going to add my sugar so i'm using a lot of sugar if you are watching your sugar you can modify this you want to do this super slow let the sugar dissolve and that's another reason i'm using super fine sugar is because it will dissolve a little faster that's the last of our sugar at this point you can add in your salt i wasn't like an a student in science class but i do remember the baking powder and the salt is necessary if you want things to get off the ground i've got coconut oil plant-based butter as well as the plant-based yogurt add in my vanilla add in my white vinegar and the matcha it's super subtle and actually just gives it a really cool color so now that i've kind of finished my meringue the way that you can tell if it's done is you can take just a little bit between your fingertips and rub it if you can feel the sugar you should keep it beating a little bit longer but right now it's nice and smooth so i'm going to keep going so i'm going to blend this for about two minutes i love batters that can go right into a blender it's super easy today i'm using oatmeal i think it's so great that we have all these new plant-based options years ago it wasn't that easy but now there's almost practically no excuse i'm gonna sprinkle my cornstarch over the top of the meringue and then gently fold it in you wanna not work your meringue too much to keep it nice and lofty i don't want to over mix it because then it'll probably taste like a chewy piece of chewing gum and i don't want that so i'm looking for a smooth consistency just make sure there's nothing that can give me like weird chunks so now it's time to pour the batter we're going to be baking it on top of the cake so we want it to fit inside of the cake pan so i'm going to use the cake pan as a guide and then flip your paper over so you're not baking onto the marker and then i'm just going to evenly divide this between the two trays i'll show you my real strategic plan for how i pour batter that's a joke because i don't have a strategic plan for how you pour batter it's okay to just eyeball it i have baked cakes where it wasn't even and you know what after i put the frosting on no one knew anyway so there you go now i'm going to just take my offset spatula and make this into as close of a circle as possible the thing about an eaton mess is that it's a mess so it's okay if it's like rustic and kind of not a perfect circle you want it to be about an inch and a half to two inches smaller than your circle of your cake because it is going to expand as it bakes and you do want to be able to fit it inside of the cake pan we're going to throw these in the oven at 250 for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes until it's like crispy and crunchy on the outside and a little bit chewy on the inside the batter is done this is gonna go into the fridge for about an hour uh while i sit and wait and then we will go on to baking now it's time to bake and by bake i mean make so many crepes your arms are gonna fall off i've got my batter in my two pans and the oven set at 350. so let's go while the meringue is baking we're going to focus on making the batter for the actual cake i'm going to add in my room temperature butter and my sugar with my lemon zest to sort of really kind of pull as much out of that lemon zest with the oils as i possibly can so this cake is very labor intensive basically takes 25 crepes i'm about to make and the only reason that i know how to make crepes is because of the pro versus home cook episode that i did with frank where i made galettes come on [Music] literally the whole process is going to be just switching between butter batter butter batter butter batter butter batter until all of the batter is gone and then you're gonna have a ton of crepes that are gonna be turned into a cake first one never comes out pretty but we're gonna see frank i'm sorry rosemary i'm sorry i don't even know what to say about that the next one will be better don't worry we're gonna scratch this and we'll move on it's okay so we're looking nice and fluffy and pale here with the butter and sugar i'm gonna add my eggs in roughly one at a time i'm just gonna whisk together my dries i've got my salt poppy seeds baking powder and then we're gonna add it all together just let that get sort of incorporated and then go ahead and add in the rest of the milk so crepe number two happy thoughts cooking these for a shorter amount of time actually maintains the green color which is nice so there's no like weird brown spots or anything so the cake looks more visually appealing for your instagram post bam my cake batter is done i've got two nine inch cake pans and two parchment rounds i'm just gonna divide this evenly between my two cake pans all right so i've got these cakes they are ready to go i am gonna do my quick little toothpick test to make sure they look great it's crepe 25 this is the last one we're so close when you finally get to the 25th layer it's like like in shawshank redemption when they finally make it out and then just like crying in the rain it's like that except for you're over a hot pan looking at green crepes and this is the last one you're making so i've got the baked meringue it's totally cooled just gonna gently take this and nestle it down into the batter i'm gonna go put those in the oven so i have some coconut rum shout out to my caribbean people i usually say pour an ounce but you know who's really counting and brush it right into the cake to make sure that everyone gets a nice bite of yummy cake and tasty coconut rum the crepes are done 25 gorgeous green crepes that even shrek would be proud of they look delicious they smell great and now it is time for the filling so i'm going to let this cool completely and i'm gonna go ahead and start making the frosting so the filling for this cake is actually broken up into two parts i've got a fresh strawberry jam and a custard buttercream we're gonna start with the strawberry jam so it can get cool so the pectin calls for a half a teaspoon of calcium powder to a half a cup of water give it a little whisk and i'll set that aside while i do my strawberries i got my heavy whipping cream i'm going to slowly kind of sprinkle in some powdered sugar i'm whipping this thing until i see some stiff peaks i want some volume to this so i'm just going to haul these strawberries rough cut them and then i'm going to give them a light mash so i've added my pectin to my sugar i'm just going to whisk these together two teaspoons of calcium water i'm going to simmer this for about 15 minutes bring it up to a full boil before i add my sugar in so let's start with the vegetable shortening as well as some vegetable margarine and then with our trusty mixer we're gonna just start beating until it's nice and creamy that looks really good this does all the work for you way easier than crepes so our fruit has really started to fully break down i'm going to add the sugar and pectin mixture into here and i'm going to stir vigorously so we don't get any clumps of pectin so now we're just going to bring this back up to a full rolling boil and then the pectin should be set here's our jam you can see that it's starting to gel already i'm going to go put this in the fridge so for the second half of the filling for the cake it's going to be custard buttercream i've got a pound of soft butter just start to beat that get it loosened up i've got two pounds of powdered sugar add the soy milk i'm going to add the vanilla extract now as well we're just going to split the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds so while this is beating i'm going to add in my salt so now i'm going to add my egg yolks into the butter so this is all coming together and it's looking pretty good you can see that it is so fluffy that's some good stuff filling's done it is time to assemble so we've got all of our components we've got the custard buttercream we've got the cooled jam we've got fresh strawberries and we've got our two cake layers so i'm just going to add a little sprinkling of salt so a little bit of lemon juice i'm going to cut the fresh strawberries and fold them into this cooled jam gonna start with crepe number one that just lays flat in the middle here so my cakes are cooled i'll show you my strategy for getting it out of the pan top secret strategy i literally just flip it over like that and pray down drop it there you go so now i'm just going to add some of this custard buttercream on top there's no set amount it's just whatever looks good assembly is super easy it's literally just layering the crepes with the whipped cream instead of batter butter batter butter it's gonna be crepe cream crepe cream crepe cream which is hard to say i'm just gonna throw some whipped cream in the middle here and then use an offset spatula to go around and smooth this i want to make sure that it's spread evenly all around so that everybody gets a generous bite i don't like cheap cake now when i'm doing this i'm going to be making a well for my jam so i'm going to kind of leave a little wall around the outside created by the buttercream so now i'm going to add some of my strawberry jam into this well that i just created make sure you get nice pieces of fresh strawberry this is almost like a like a meditative exercise because it requires a lot of patience just like time and effort and care and you have to be meticulous about it because if you're not it could come out looking really sloppy so i love shredded coconut this just reminds me of the caribbean it reminds me of the holidays i like to just get it all over in the middle so that you can have an even bite i lost track like four crepes ago i don't know what number i'm on i don't know what day it is i should probably call my family at some point they're probably wondering where i am so for the second layer it's going to be a little more delicate because we can't really uh flip the cake stand anymore so pop the plate on top again flip it out and then i'm going to gently nestle this right on the top of my cake voila look at you all right so let's keep going we're just going to repeat the step with the buttercream and the jam on the top and i like to leave it just kind of like rustic and luscious and full and kind of fluffy this is a mess so it should be a mess even if i mess up with the frosting and it's not perfect there'll be so much coconut on this cake you wouldn't be able to tell the difference and maybe there'll be so much rum in it you won't tell a difference either all right the end is in sight i see it it's looking really good so i am saving this one for the top this is it it's a big moment there's tears welling up inside my eyeballs perfect this is the instagram cake this is the cake that you want to show your friends and family and you're like what did you do this weekend and you're like what did i do this weekend i made a 25 player cake with matcha crepes what do you what did you do this weekend now that my cake is frosted i'm going to decorate it with shredded coconut and maraschino cherries this is what love looks like it's really sweet it's a little messy the only way to decorate a matcha cake is more matcha i feel like i need a few more fresh strawberries on top so i'm going to cut a few toss it in the jam and then lay them out on the top looking really nice and here is my vegan coconut rum layer cake and this is my layer cake and this is my eaton mess layer cake it is time to taste try to get the perfect bite with all the components okay here we go real good i think all in all this is light it's fluffy and it's delicious it's so pretty you feel bad eating it and then you do and then you don't feel bad anymore this vegan coconut cake is fantastic especially for people who are plant curious and they want to go plant-based you really really can have a good time baking without eggs or dairy it's moist it's yummy you can taste the coconut rum this is like a plate of vacation right here the meringue is so crunchy and salty and the cake you got like that nice lemon flavor to it great i'm really happy with it layer cakes can be simple or sophisticated but always indulgent let's see how each of our three chefs made theirs la made a caribbean inspired vegan layer cake that was simple but delicious this is beautiful i love it she used a plant-based butter which was made from a process called inter-esterification intra-esterification is the rearranging of fatty acids on a triglyceride which is the main form of dietary fat this process changes targeted characteristics of fats resulting in a plant-based oil that's firmer with a higher melting point ellie omitted the eggs and relied on her plant-forward ingredients like oat milk which has beta-glucans a type of polysaccharide that helps emulsify other ingredients her oat milk was added last to moisten and dissolve her ingredients now that is looking good her cake was light and rose because she added baking powder this created tiny air pockets from the production of carbon dioxide through a process of chemical leavening this is fast compared to the slower production of carbon dioxide by living yeast as you might find when making bread it's a science but not always a perfect science daniel made a japanese japanese-inspired cake that wasn't baked but rather made on a griddle with a thinner pourable crepe batter he seasoned his crepe batter with matcha a bright green grassy flavored powder made from tea leaves matcha has various grades and price ranges the ceremonial grade is the highest grade and most expensive the culinary grade while still expensive is much more suited to baking crepes are meant to be unleavened and thin the height and volume of this layer cake came from his 25 layers of thin crepes stacked and layered with whipped cream not from the leavening of his batter yeah this looks incredible bill made a complex layer cake including two layers of meringue meringue is a solid foam of whipped egg whites bill added the acidic vinegar to his naturally slightly alkaline egg whites to bring them closer to their isoelectric point this is when egg white proteins achieve a neutral ph and are best able to incorporate maximum air he also had a high sugar to egg white ratio during baking the sugar dehydrated and became crispy resulting in a dry crisp meringue during baking cake batter expands as its temperature increases and carbon dioxide and water vapor is produced the batter's final structure solidifies when egg proteins coagulate starches gel and gluten stretches as carbon dioxide and water vapor escape finally as the surface of the cape becomes drier caramelization and mayor browning occurs daniel didn't bake at all instead he used a buttered griddle to make his crepes turning them once they started to crisp on the edges and bubble in the center this was from water escaping in the form of steam as the batter's temperature increased bubbles good sign ellie made a fat and sugar emulsion icing with a combination of margarine and shortening she also used confectioner's sugar confectioner's sugar is much smoother on the tongue than crystalline table sugar this is because it's finely pulverized to a very small crystal size now that is looking good daniel made a simple sweetened whipped cream using heavy cream when cream is whipped the milk proteins align to form very thin films around pockets of air the separated pockets are supported by the cold semi-solid fat and are resistant to popping and collapsing under the cohesive forces of water molecules this is why cold cream whips better than a room temperature cream bill made a strawberry jam with crushed berries combined with calcium pectin and sugar calcium strengthens crosslinks between pectin molecules making a firmer thicker jam he also made a modified buttercream with butter aerated by beating and then added confectioners sugar and a pasteurized egg because the egg was pasteurized it made it safe to consume eggs are pasteurized by heating them in the shell in water to approximately 140 degrees fahrenheit this is hot enough to reduce the pathogen load while allowing the functionality of the egg to remain intact eggs can also be pasteurized using ozone which is a configuration of oxygen that has the effect of disrupting bacterial cell walls thereby killing them next time you're in the mood for a delicious layer cake you have lots of options you don't even have to use an oven we hope you'll take some of these excellent tips from our three talented chefs

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 956,388

Keywords: 4 levels, layer cake, make a cake, bake a cake, bake layer cake, make layer cake, easy layer cake, layer cake recipe, expert layer cake, vegan cake, make vegan cake, vegan cake recipe, coconut cake, rum cake, matcha layer cake, japanese layer cake, japanese matcha cake, crepe cake, matcha crepe cake, eton mess cake, make eton mess, eton mess cake recipe, crepe cake recipe, epicurious 4 levels, 4 levels layer cake, 4 levels of layer cake, epicurious, epi

Id: 5cMdXWClnfM

Length: 18min 5sec (1085 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 10 2021