Playing with fire
This is a friend of mine from Texas, the big chunky guy in the red shirt and chaps. He calls himself the Outlaw Chef:
Patrick Fox, chef/owner, Cava Greens, Denver
Note: This video contains swearing.
Re: Hey Chef, are my cakes doomed to dome? April 2
My mother, who was a caterer, especially of weddings, in Bartlesville, Okla. came up with this solution: Make strips of old terrycloth towels wide as the height of your baking pans and long enough to wrap around with a small overlap. Soak them in water, sqeeze them out lightly and put them around each pan, secured with a large safety pin.
The damp towel keeps the pan sides from heating faster than the cake, and allows the cake to rise up the sides, instead of drying out and hardening immediately, creating the “dreadful dome.”
Jeanne Ann Walter, Denver
I’m no chef, simply a grandmother who’s baked and decorated hundreds of cakes over the past 40-plus years, with nary a dome among them.
Stores that sell cake decorating supplies (Michaels, Hobby Lobby) carry packages of Wilton’s aluminum cloth, 1 3/8-inch-wide strips that can be cut to size, soaked in water and wrapped around the outside of cake pans before baking.
Shirley Alverson
