Cake Flour

Pam Kelleman of Phoenix was looking for a recipe for a layer cake that was served at the now-closed Pimlico Hotel restaurant in Baltimore. She was hoping a reader would have the "original" recipe for the cake. Unfortunately, I did not receive any responses, but I happened to notice that Atwater's bakery at Belvedere Square makes a version of this hometown favorite. Ned Atwater was kind enough to modify his Pimlico cake recipe for the home baker. I tested his cake, and it was just as Kelleman described the original: a yellow chiffon layer cake filled with Bavarian custard and iced with a rich chocolate frosting.

Nancy Hannah from Baltimore was looking for a recipe for a quick and simple single-layer cake with a caramel icing. She thought the cake might have been called Caramel Frosted Picnic cake and was made with the one-bowl method. She said the cake was ideal for taking to picnics because it held up well and was easy to transport. Gladys Wilt from Lothian sent in a recipe from her copy of "The Joy of Cooking," 1953 edition, for Hurry-Up Caramel Cake that she thought might be close to what Hannah was looking for. The name of this cake speaks for itself.

Purging fat from baked goods is always difficult because fat performs several functions in a recipe.Fat makes baked goods tender by coating the proteins in flour and preventing them from joining together to form tough strands of gluten. Fat contributes to moistness and, when creamed with sugar, helps lighten and aerate the batter. And, as any expert baker can tell you, fat carries flavor.Fruit puree can stand in for fat largely because the pectin and other soluble fibers it contains can also coat flour proteins.

Angel food cake for Mother's Day? Some might see it as punishment. I taste possibilities. At a time when the nation is watching its waistline in virtually every sense, this light, airy dessert lets a mom have her cake and eat it, too. Made from scratch, perhaps scented with a bit of rosewater or lemon zest, angel food cake is lovely and dialed down, a dessert without regrets. Add a delicate glaze, a berry garnish, a dab of whipped cream or a sweet sabayon sauce, and you've created options for the lady of the day to add on as she pleases.

We received many responses to Sandy Anderson's plea for a rich pound cake.Larry G. Sallor of Baltimore writes that Sandy would be "hard pressed to find a better recipe than than the whipping cream pound cake."Please note that this cake starts in a cold oven. Also note that the recipe calls for cake flour. Cake flour and regular, all-purpose flour, are not interchangable.Whipping Cream Pound Cake3 cups sugar1/2 pound butter, softened7 eggs, at room temperature3 cups cake flour, sifted twice1 cup whipping cream2 teaspoons vanilla extractButter and flour a ten-inch tube or Bundt pan. Thoroughly cream sugar and butter.

A big thank you to Regina M. Stein of Baltimore who wrote us with a cake flour substitution. A couple of weeks ago we ran a recipe calling for cake flour. We pointed out that cake flour, sold in the baking goods aisle at the supermarket, is not the same thing as all-purpose flour. We also noted that all-purpose flour can't be substituted for cake flour.Regina says all-purpose flour can be substituted using this simple formula. For each cup of cake flour called for, use instead one cup, sifted all-purpose flour minus two tablespoons.

Q: How can you tell if exotic oils go bad? I store oils such as safflower, sesame and peanut in a cool, dark place but I worry that they will turn.A: There will be no doubt if specialty oils go bad because they'll give off a rancid smell that is very obvious. For prolonged shelf life it's best to store these oils in the refrigerator. If they become cloudy, the flavor will not be affected and they will become clear again at room temperature.Q: Please tell me if there is any difference between saffron and Mexican saffron.

Q: Nutmeg and mace seem similar to me. Are they related, and can they be substituted for each other?A: Nutmeg and mace are similar and are even from the same fruit of the nutmeg tree. Nutmeg is the fruit's oval-shaped pit and mace is the bright red webbing that surrounds the shell of the pit. The pit, nutmeg, can be left whole and freshly grated or packaged already ground. Mace is removed, dried and ground. At that point, it turns a rust color. The two spices can be interchanged but nutmeg does have a sweeter and more delicate aroma and taste than mace.

Commercial low-fat desserts are commonly found in supermarkets. However, home cooks don't need to buy new-fangled products to serve heart-healthy desserts. Homemade angel food cake has always been virtually fat-free.The following recipe for chocolate angel food cake with coffee sauce combines two outstanding flavors in one delicious dessert. The cake is made with egg whites, cocoa, sugar and cake flour and contains absolutely no fat. The sauce is made with instant coffee, rum or brandy and low-fat milk, and thickened with a cornstarch.

Since my childhood I have been an unabashed fan of all things chocolate. For the past few weeks, I have been working on a recipe for a rich, dark chocolate pound cake. It has taken more than a few testings to produce a cake that is moist, tender and balanced strongly but not overwhelmingly with the taste of chocolate. After myriad tries, I am pleased with the final results. To the usual quartet of pound-cake ingredients of flour, butter, sugar and eggs, I added two types of chocolate -- unsweetened cocoa powder and chocolate chips.

Pam Kelleman of Phoenix was looking for a recipe for a layer cake that was served at the now-closed Pimlico Hotel restaurant in Baltimore. She was hoping a reader would have the "original" recipe for the cake. Unfortunately, I did not receive any responses, but I happened to notice that Atwater's bakery at Belvedere Square makes a version of this hometown favorite. Ned Atwater was kind enough to modify his Pimlico cake recipe for the home baker. I tested his cake, and it was just as Kelleman described the original: a yellow chiffon layer cake filled with Bavarian custard and iced with a rich chocolate frosting.

Another legislative session, another opportunity for controversy. Forget taxes, forget slots - they're so last session. No, for the regular session that starts tomorrow, the General Assembly has on its plate, literally, this question: Should Maryland designate the Smith Island Cake as the official state dessert? Let me ask the question another way: Does this sophisticated state, home to such floury celebrities as Duff "Ace of Cakes" Goldman, want its official dessert to be one whose recipe includes as an ingredient, "one 18 1/4 -oz. box yellow cake mix, preferably Duncan Hines?"

Luscious Berry Desserts By Lori Longbotham Berries By Roger Yepsen W.W. Norton & Co. / 2006 / $24.95 Roger Yepsen is an author and illustrator, so recipes are almost an afterthought in this 160-page book. The charmingly illustrated book is divided into chapters by type of berry, which for a cook makes little sense because berries often can be used interchangeably in recipes. Yepsen describes each berry and how and where it is grown, then provides a few recipes for how to use it. He fearlessly goes beyond the normal dessert fare to provide recipes for soups, beverages and sauces.

Since my childhood I have been an unabashed fan of all things chocolate. For the past few weeks, I have been working on a recipe for a rich, dark chocolate pound cake. It has taken more than a few testings to produce a cake that is moist, tender and balanced strongly but not overwhelmingly with the taste of chocolate. After myriad tries, I am pleased with the final results. To the usual quartet of pound-cake ingredients of flour, butter, sugar and eggs, I added two types of chocolate -- unsweetened cocoa powder and chocolate chips.

Ah, the glory of a cake: No other food has stood so universally as a messenger of love and honor, a symbol of occasion. A cake makes a statement: This is important. Problem is, cakes also have been statements of fat and calorie overloads -- at least until now. We've lightened a few of them, halving the fat while enhancing the flavor that made them American classics.You'll need a candy thermometer to make the Fluffy White Frosting for the White Triple-Layer Cake With Lemon Filling. Candy thermometers are different from meat thermometers and can be found in many supermarkets.

When Maureen Newbold of Hope Mills, N.C., wrote requesting a recipe for maraschino cherry cake, little did she suspect how many answers she'd receive from Maryland, Illinois, Kentucky, North and South Carolina, Washington, Oregon and Pennsylvania, just to name a few states.She wrote that "we used to bake this cake and called it 'party cake' in the late '40s and early '50s. It was a popular cake with my family in Pittsburgh, Pa., when I was a child. The recipe has slipped away from us."Ann Dahne of Towson responded with Chef Gilles Syglowski's choice.

Nancy Hannah from Baltimore was looking for a recipe for a quick and simple single-layer cake with a caramel icing. She thought the cake might have been called Caramel Frosted Picnic cake and was made with the one-bowl method. She said the cake was ideal for taking to picnics because it held up well and was easy to transport. Gladys Wilt from Lothian sent in a recipe from her copy of "The Joy of Cooking," 1953 edition, for Hurry-Up Caramel Cake that she thought might be close to what Hannah was looking for. The name of this cake speaks for itself.

Brunches are especially popular during the holidays, but the dishes served are often laden with fat. We chose two readers' favorite brunch recipes that were heavy on the fat and converted them to delicious variations with more reasonable nutritional levels.The Cranberry Streusel Coffee Cake recipe submitted by one reader was tasty, but with its 13 grams of fat per serving, it presented not one but four opportunities for our fat-busting team.The first three have become standard procedure in our test kitchen: Delete an egg yolk, substitute nonfat yogurt for the full-fat sour cream, and eliminate butter from the streusel topping (switching to a mixture of apple-juice concentrate and a little vegetable oil)