When we were trying to decide our recipe, we tried several different recipes and tried to make them fit our needs. The recipes for home baking are relatively simple compared to the commercial recipes. There were no emulsifiers, no quality improvers, stabilizers, etc. I disregard the cream of tartar from the very beginning of my baking life. Even baking powder that was generally considered safe and essential, we make our cake without it. In the end, we do not use even a little bit of corn starch. After all, our families will finish these cakes if they were not sold out. We dare to use the best and simple ingredient!
In our final version, there are five ingredients: egg, flour, milk, sugar, and canola oil. And a half teaspoon of lemon juice. That’s all! And our cakes contain a high ratio of milk, which means it tends to collapse if the bubbles of eggs whites are not good enough. We have to be careful of every single step to make sure that the cake could stay moisture yet fluffy. (Thanks to my little ones. In the processing of the recipe experiment, they took care of all the “not so perfect” samples for me. And I could tell if they like the recipes or not by the rate they finished them.)
我們實驗食譜的過程中, 參考了許多不同的食譜, 嘗試使用我們想要的原料, 一般家庭用的食譜本來就已經偏簡單, 不會有乳化劑, 改良劑, 穩定劑一些有的沒的 (塔塔粉好幾年前自己玩烘培的時候就沒有在用了), 連泡打粉這種相對安全的原料, 我們後來也拿掉了, 最後剩下玉米澱粉, 實驗之後, 也去掉了, 畢竟賣不完我們要自己吃掉, 一丁點都不會浪費, 當然要要求高一點
所以最終版本的戚風蛋糕, 就只有”蛋”, “麵粉”, “牛奶”, “糖”, “植物油”五種成分, 還有一點點的”檸檬汁”, 沒了! 夠簡單了吧, 而且牛奶比例比一般的戚風蛋糕還高, 水分越多的蛋糕就越容易塌陷, 意思是考驗主廚打發蛋白跟混合的功力啦, 每個步驟都要細心注意, 才能確保每個成品都能濕潤又綿密. (中間努力過程的 NG 蛋糕, 都被兩隻小朋友搶著吃完啦, 從他們吃的速度就可以看出好吃的程度, 真是感謝他們的捧場啊!)