more sugar and fat than they do flour! And
they serve as a base for even sweeter and
richer custards, creams, icings, jams, syrups,
chocolate, and liqueurs. As suits their
luxurious nature, they’re often elaborately
shaped and decorated.
A cake’s structure is created mainly by
flour starch and by egg proteins. The tender,
melt-in-the-mouth texture comes from gas
bubbles, which subdivide the batter into
fragile sheets, and from the sugar and fat,
which interfere with gluten formation and egg
protein coagulation, and interrupt the network
of gelated starch. The sugar and fat can
compromise lightness if they weaken the cake
structure so much that it can’t support its own
weight. Of course dense, heavy cakes can be
delicious in their own way. Flourless
chocolate cakes, nut cakes, and fruit cakes are
examples.
Traditional Cakes: Limited Sweetness and