> Pound cake isn't a sponge, it's what's known as a cream cake (as in
> creaming the butter and sugar together). There may be recipes that call
> for the eggs to be beaten to a sponge, but the earliest recipes under
> the name seem not to include that step. For that matter, neither do the
> modern ones I've seen. The main change to pound cake recipes I've seen
> has been the addition of a failsafe chemical leavening, and you'll note
> that this recipe already contains that, in spite of its age.
You are right, my bad...
I didn't mean the technically correct term "Sponge" cake, but rather, I guess,
was trying to class together a variety of cakes where the eggas are separated,
and the only leavening is the beaten egg whites folded back into the batter.
That includes pound and genoise, I think.
Now those cakes should be fine correlations to the recipe under discussion.
Which, If I read it right, is indeed a cream cake.
(Reference the following:
"2 cups sugar and 1/2 butter worked to a cream; ")
If Pound cake can hold the air, then this recipe should as well, which is the
point of my post. I was responding to your doubt that the eggwhites will retain
air. I tried to make this point, if pound cake can retain air, so can this recipe.
>
> > Oh, and isnt Chocolate mousse chock full of fat? That does not fall!
> > Souflles are another such item, IIRC
> >
> > What seems important to me is to "temper" the whites by folding a little of
> > the batter into the whites before folding the whites into the batter.
> > That seems to helps avoid the whites falling.
>
> There may be batters/sludges which are thick enough before the addition
> of the egg whites to allow them to trap air before the egg white
> structure alone would collapse. Mousse could be an example of this, but
> then mousse recipes vary also. The fact is, though, that fat does act as
> a shortening which in turn adversely affects the extensibility of
> protein strands, and cookbooks are full of dire warnings about not
> letting a drop of oil or even any yolk fall into the egg whites you're
> beating. Yes, it can be done, but the technology (and the technique) are
> different. Witness the difference (and the increased difficulty) of
> making, say, genoise sponge versus angel food cake.
Absolutely! While whipping the eggs, fat will prevent the trapping of air.
Of course, I agree. that is in any elementary Cake Cookbook .
BUT, after it is whipped to peak, adding it to a batter which contains fat,
if done correctly, does not NECESSARILY mean that the whites will fall.
I think that "tempering the whites", as I said in the post, is de rigeur in
making a genoise, IIRC. If the whites are not tempered first (with a little
of the batter they are to be mixed into ), the Genoise will indeed fall.
Genoise is a much more difficult cake, but infinitely more satisfying to
accomplish (and EAT) than Angel Food!
Brandu
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