Cake recipes: lemon, carrot and chocolate cakes – Basic Cake Preparation (Senior 3 Home Science) | Ganzaa

Basic Cake Preparation

Lessons

Senior 3 · Home Science

Basic Cake Preparation

4 lessons

Lesson 3 of 4

Cake recipes: lemon, carrot and chocolate cakes

25 min

Let's begin

A small home bakery in a town such as Huye or Musanze might sell three cakes every week: a lemon loaf for the tea break, a carrot cake for customers who want something moist and lightly spiced, and a chocolate cake for birthdays. They are made by three different methods, creaming, the oil method and a one-bowl oil method, so making all three practises most of the skills in this unit. Each recipe below gives the ingredients, the tin, the oven setting and the method, followed by the calculations a baker needs: scaling, changing the tin, and costing.

Definition

Recipe: a list of ingredients in exact quantities with the method, the equipment, the cooking temperature and time, and the yield.

Yield: the amount a recipe makes, e.g. one 900 g loaf or 12 slices.

Zest: the thin, coloured outer layer of citrus peel, grated finely for its flavoured oil. The white pith underneath is bitter.

Drizzle: a thin syrup or icing poured over a cake.

1. Lemon drizzle loaf (creaming method)

Ingredients

Method

175 g soft butter or margarine
175 g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175 g self-raising flour
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons milk
Drizzle: juice of 1½ lemons and 85 g granulated sugar

Line a 900 g loaf tin. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (160 °C fan).
Cream the fat and caster sugar until pale and fluffy.
Beat in the egg a little at a time.
Fold in the sifted flour and the zest; add the milk to a dropping consistency.
Spoon into the tin, level, and bake for 45–50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.
Mix the lemon juice and granulated sugar. Prick the warm cake all over with a skewer and pour the drizzle over it. Cool in the tin; the sugar sets into a crisp crust.

2. Carrot cake (oil method)

Ingredients

Method

200 g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
175 g soft brown sugar
3 eggs
150 mL vegetable oil
200 g carrots (about 3), finely grated
75 g raisins
Frosting: 100 g cream cheese, 50 g soft butter, 200 g icing sugar, a little grated lemon zest

Line a 20 cm square tin. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (160 °C fan).
Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon into a bowl; stir in the sugar.
Whisk the eggs and oil together; pour into the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
Stir in the carrots and raisins.
Pour into the tin and bake for 35–40 minutes, until risen and firm and a skewer comes out clean.
Cool completely. Beat the butter and icing sugar, then beat in the cold cream cheese briefly; spread over the cake. Keep it in the fridge.

3. Chocolate cake (one-bowl oil method)

Ingredients

Method

200 g plain flour
200 g caster sugar
50 g cocoa powder
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
a pinch of salt
2 eggs
200 mL milk
100 mL vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
150 mL boiling water

Grease and line the bases of two 20 cm round tins. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (160 °C fan).
Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large bowl.
Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat until smooth.
Carefully stir in the boiling water: the batter will be thin. That is correct.
Divide between the tins and bake for 25–30 minutes, until the cakes spring back when pressed.
Cool, then sandwich and cover with chocolate butter icing (Lesson 4).

Worked example

Worked example 1: changing the tin. The carrot cake is made in a 20 cm square tin. Will the same mixture fit a 23 cm round tin, and should the recipe be changed?

Area of the square tin: $20 \times 20 = 400\,\mathrm{cm^2}$ .
Area of the round tin: $A = \pi r^2 = \pi \times 11.5^2 \approx 415\,\mathrm{cm^2}$
Ratio: $\frac{415}{400} \approx 1.04$ . The round tin is only 4% larger, so the same recipe fits; the cake will be slightly thinner and may need 2–3 minutes less. A 20 cm round tin (area $\approx 314\,\mathrm{cm^2}$ ) would need only about $\frac{314}{400} \approx 0.79$ of the mixture.

Worked example

Worked example 2: costing a cake. Illustrative prices. Find the cost of the chocolate cake and the cost per slice if it is cut into 12.

Ingredient	Quantity	Price	Cost (Frw)
flour	0.2 kg	1,200 Frw per kg	240
sugar	0.2 kg	1,600 Frw per kg	320
cocoa	0.05 kg	12,000 Frw per kg	600
eggs	2	150 Frw each	300
milk	0.2 L	800 Frw per L	160
oil	0.1 L	3,000 Frw per L	300
raising agents, salt, vanilla			100

Total: $240 + 320 + 600 + 300 + 160 + 300 + 100 = 2,020$ Frw. Per slice: $\frac{2{,}020}{12} \approx 168$ Frw, before icing, fuel and the baker's time are added.

Warning

Allergies and food safety. Cakes contain wheat (gluten), eggs and milk, and often nuts: tell customers which allergens a cake contains. Keep cakes with cream-cheese or fresh-cream icing in the fridge. Do not taste raw cake batter: raw eggs can carry Salmonella and raw flour can carry harmful E. coli.

Tip

Memory hook for the three recipes: "Lemon is creamed, carrot is oiled, chocolate is one-bowled."

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Practice

Which mixing method is used for each of the three cakes?
Why is the lemon drizzle poured over the cake while it is still warm?
Why does the carrot cake stay moist for several days?
The chocolate cake batter is very thin. Is something wrong? Explain.
A baker needs 3 lemon loaves. How much butter, sugar and flour should be weighed?
A recipe for a 20 cm round tin is to be baked in a 25 cm round tin. By what factor should the ingredients be multiplied? Give your answer to two decimal places.
Using the costing in Worked example 2, a baker sells slices at 300 Frw. Evaluate whether this price is sensible, considering all her costs.

Show answersHide answers

Lemon drizzle: creaming. Carrot cake: oil method. Chocolate cake: one-bowl oil method.
A warm cake is soft and slightly open, so the syrup soaks in, and the sugar sets into a crisp crust as the cake cools.
The oil stays liquid at room temperature, and the grated carrot holds water, so the crumb stays soft and moist.
Nothing is wrong: this recipe uses boiling water, so the batter is meant to be thin; it bakes into a moist, light cake.
$3 \times 175 = 525$ g each of butter, caster sugar and self-raising flour.
$\frac{\pi \times 12.5^2}{\pi \times 10^2} = \frac{156.25}{100} \approx 1.56$ .
Ingredients cost about 168 Frw a slice, so 300 Frw leaves about 132 Frw a slice. From this she must pay for icing, fuel or electricity, packaging and her time, and allow for unsold slices. The price may be just enough for a small profit; she should cost the icing and fuel too and compare with local prices before deciding.

Sources and credits

Lesson text, recipes, tables, worked examples and practice: written by Ganzaa. Prices in Worked example 2 are illustrative.
Raw batter safety: Raw flour and dough, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Summarised in Ganzaa's own words.
Photo: Lemon Drizzle Slice - Café W, Andy Li, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
Photo: Carrot cake, David Benbennick, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

11. Lemon drizzle loaf (creaming method)

22. Carrot cake (oil method)

33. Chocolate cake (one-bowl oil method)

1. Lemon drizzle loaf (creaming method)

2. Carrot cake (oil method)

3. Chocolate cake (one-bowl oil method)