Butter Cakes vs Oil Cakes

Why does Penelope's Perfections use butter in all their cakes?  There are 2 reasons.  TASTE and STABILITY.

First of all, taste is a big deal to us here at Penelope's Perfections.  If a cake is made with butter, it's going to have a richer flavor than that of oils, shortenings, or margarine.  Butter has a way of making everything taste better.  It is also why we only use buttercream frosting to ice our cakes. 

Another reason we love to use butter in our cakes is because of how easy it is to work with when we are making wedding cakes.  Wedding cakes are layered, filled, and stacked which can create a significant amount of weight that a bottom tier of cake has to support.  Butter cakes have a compact texture and a small crumb which lends to being more stable for stacking other layers of cake on top.  A cake made with butter is firm when it is cold, just like butter.  Layering the cake is easy with butter because it doesn't fall apart when it is handled.

So what's the difference between butter, oil, shortening, and margarine in making cakes?  Growing up, we've all had store bought cake mixes that call for adding eggs and oil to make a cake.  Oil causes the cake to be tall, moist and light with a slightly coarse and open crumb.  Oil is lighter than butter and therefore the cake will have more height than a butter based cake.  Oil never solidifies when it is cold, so it will always leave an "oily" residue on the crumb that will be perceived as being "moist".  The taste of oil vs butter is going to fall short every time with butter being superior.  A butter cake will be shorter than an oil cake with a more compact crumb.  When margarine is used in making a cake, the results show that the cake is moist but not light, the crumb is coarse, and the cake is salty.  Shortening also makes a cake tall and light but the crumb is coarse, dry and crumbly.

Butter cakes not only provide great taste and stability, but they are moist as well.  The trick with butter cakes are that they have to be at room temperature before they can be served.  Unlike oil, butter has to be warmed to the right temperature.  If it is not at room temperature, the butter cake will give an appearance of being hard to cut, dense in texture, or even dry.  So be sure to let it sit out for 1-2 hours so it will be at just the right temperature to serve.












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Ideas for Decorating Valentine's Cookies

Love this technique with royal icing to decorate cookies!



 http://trending.sweetambs.com/videos/how-to-decorate-cookies-for-valentine-s-day






















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Candied Hazelnuts

What can be better than a chocolate cake with rich chocolate buttercream filling and chocolate ganache icing?  Not much you say?  How about decorating the top of the cake with caramelized candied hazelnuts?  It is a work of art in itself!  It is as if the hazelnuts are defying gravity!  It isn't magic, but close to it!

If you attempt to make these delicious beauties, here are some helpful tips.

Things you will need:
8 long wooden skewers
8 hazelnuts, toasted and skin removed
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
cutting board
parchment paper

Toast the hazelnuts on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  When they are slightly warm, place them in a towel and rub them together to remove the skin.  Once they are clean, put a wooden skewer into the side of each nut.

Next is the fun part, making caramel!  Cook sugar and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved.  Continue to cook, without stirring, until syrup comes to a boil, washing down the the sides of the pan with a wet pastry  brush to prevent crystals from forming.  (Crystallization is what happens when the sugar "crystallizes" on the side of the sauce pan.  The sugar needs to stay in the water suspension.  Using the water filled pastry brush to "wash" down the sugar crystals will save your caramel from being a grainy mess!).   Let the sugar mixture boil until the syrup turns light amber, about five minutes.  Remove from heat and let stand until slightly cooled, 4-6 minutes.

When the caramel is still warm, dip a skewered hazelnut into the syrup, coating completely and letting the excess syrup drip back into the pan.  When the dripping syrup becomes a thin string, secure the end of the skewer under a cutting board on the edge of a counter to drip onto a piece of parchment paper underneath.  Repeat with all hazelnuts.  Let them stand until the caramel has hardened, about five minutes.  Lastly, break the strings to about four inches.  Carefully remove skewers.

Tips:  Watch the caramel closely, it can crystallize quickly and or burn.  Sometimes adding a tablespoon of corn syrup will prevent crystallization.  Work quickly once your caramel is at a warm temperature!  It sets fast!  It can be reheated in the microwave for about 5-10 seconds if it gets to gooey.

Happy Caramelizing!!!












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