Delia Smith - Delias Cakes

DELIAS

CAKES

Photography by Dan Jones
Food Stylist Lindsey Greensted Benech

www.hodder.co.uk

CONTENTS

.

THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT CAKES,

but actually its about a lot more than that. The whole affair from start to finish is about supreme unadulterated pleasure. Or as someone once said, when you offer homemade cake to anyone it never fails to put a smile on their face.

But theres more. Actually setting about making a cake, allowing your creative powers to come into play, knowing all those smiles that await you, has a kind of hidden social agenda its cheaper than therapy and much more pleasurable.

If all that sounds a bit OTT, I promise you it isnt. On the serious side, sometimes affluence can rebound on us and in subtle ways we can end up actually being impoverished. Cakes are a perfect example. We now pay twice as much for mass-produced cakes and biscuits made in factories, which will always be inferior to and blander than homemade (not to mention the long lists of obscure additives in the ingredients).

So if I might put a positive spin on our current climate of austerity, what homemade cakes have got going for them is that they provide you with something really luxurious at very little cost. A chain coffee-house muffin circa 2013 can cost six or seven times as much as a vastly superior homemade version.

. So no excuses you must now go and make a cake for family or friends at the first opportunity.

THE TYRANNY OF TINS

I could write a whole book just on this subject. Over the years I have constantly had to re-jig cake recipes because the required tin sizes were no longer available. And this is the predominant reason more often than not that cake recipes sometimes fail that is, you are simply not using the correct tin for the mixture.

The tin sizes I used in my first Book of Cakes in 1977 were no longer sold when we published my Baking Collection in 2005, so we re-tested them all for different sized tins. Now, for this book in 2013, those sizes are no longer around!

It goes like this: add a few centimetres more to a tin and you can charge more. Reduce it by a few centimetres and it will be cheaper to make, so you can charge less and undercut the other guy. Translate that into what happens in the kitchen and we have the problem of eggs, which unfortunately dont come in half or quarter sizes.

Let me explain the science. Sponge cakes go like this: mixtures containing 2 eggs and 115g each of flour, sugar and butter need 18cm tins, while 3 egg and 175g mixtures need 20cm tins. Ah yes, you will think, you can easily buy such tins (although there was a time when there were no 18cm tins at all!). But think again, or rather get your tape-measure out and check them. And while youre at it they both need to be 4cm deep (because the depth of the tin encourages the cake to rise). You will find that quite a few tins stating these sizes dont actually measure up.

But now for the good news. I and the team at the Deliaonline Cookery School have collaborated with what is, in our opinion, one of the best-quality bakeware manufacturers in the country to create a range of cake tins that not only fit our recipes but will also last a lifetime. Silverwood are an established, family-run, British business and their high-quality bakeware is still partially made by hand. You can visit them if you wish, and you can see the tins being made on our website.

We have kept the entire range to a minimum, so your cupboards need no longer be clogged up with now obsolete versions circa 1970, 1980 or 1990. There are just 12 items in the range (see ).

Does this mean the recipes here can only be made in these tins? No, it doesnt, but you will need to find the nearest size, and remember a larger or smaller tin than the one stated will require an adjustment in cooking times (i.e. a larger tin will need less time, and a smaller tin will take more time). instance, from the first Book of Cakes, has remained extremely popular with those who follow my recipes the original tin has not been available for years and still people have managed to make it. So, where theres a will theres a way!

In order to keep things really simple, we do not feel the need to use spring-form tins. They tend not to wear well as the clips break, and anyway removing a cake from a tin is extremely simple with a loose-based tin (see picture ). In addition, the flat loose bases of these tins are perfect for lifting cakes onto serving dishes.

HOW TO REMOVE CAKES FROM TINS

Sponge cakes are always turned out see recipes. Other cakes can be removed by first loosening the edges by sliding a palette knife all round, then placing the cake on an upturned bowl and gently sliding the tin downwards. Then use a palette knife gently to slide the cake from the base and liner onto a cooling rack.

BAKING EQUIPMENT

CAKE TIN LINERS

Lining cake tins was always a bother and so off-putting in the old days. Not so now, because the makers of silicone or non-stick parchment papers provide packs of base liners and rolls of side lining.

However, having worked our way through the whole range of recipes in this book, we have been totally converted to cake-liners called Bake-O-Glide. They are simply a joy to use nothing sticks every time theyre used. They can be rinsed under the tap, dried with kitchen paper and used again and again, so you never run out theyre always there like a reliable friend to help make your life simpler.

We have also teamed up with the makers of Bake-O-Glide and with Silverwood, so that you can now buy the exact fit for every cake recipe in the repertoire (see picture ), including our own design for the oblong and Swiss Roll tins, plus a special baking sheet.

OTHER EQUIPMENT

SCALES

These are now electronic, light and inexpensive. It is so convenient to be able to wveigh any container, press to zero and then weigh out your ingredients. (A warning, though the batteries sometimes give up without warning, so always have plenty to spare.)

COOLING TRAYS

A quick check-list should include two wire cooling trays. Cakes will be soggy and steamy underneath if air is not allowed to circulate while they cool.