Decided Marble Cake was needed, using my Mother's very old recipe. Several questions have been nagging at me, thought I'd pose them along with the baking results. Last time, my wife's loaf pan was too small. My Mother's must have been bigger. Wife suggested a Bundt pan. Turned out perfect size! The dough in the pan, about 1/2 full, good per my wife. I had no idea how much a cake rises. Our big Sharp Micro-convection. View of cake did not come out. Bought this oven at a garage sale for $35!. Upside down, still fairly hot, dumped out of pan. My wife did that; we did not want it on the floor! Top side, crunchy browned and cracked, exactly as I remember it looking from my childhood! Except. Like a smart-guy, I went around my wife's suggestion to "swirl" the two colored doughs in the bake pan, and did it in the mixing bowl. Outside, at least, very little light colored dough is evident. The questions: I think I understand how yeast-dough rises, using sugar to generate gas, which "puffs" it up. This cake, however, uses no yeast, just Baking Powder. Baking Powder is mostly Baking Soda, Sodium Bicarbonate, which will release gas when mixed with an acid material. What IS the acid material in a typical cake dough which reacts with the Baking Powder to create gas? I don't see anything going in it as being acidic; eggs? Not flour, surely, nor sugar, tiny bit of Nutmeg, milk, Vanilla Extract. Other question: If the sugar is vital to the dough rising, and is left out completely using, say, Stevia, is the rising of the dough affected? Wife wanted me to do that, but I chose not to, as she cannot eat the cake anyway, due to low-carb diet. Any ideas appreciated! Frank
http://chemistry.about.com/od/foodcookingchemistry/a/How-Baking-Powder-Works.htm This should help you @Frank Sanoica.
@Babs Hunt Super! The acid is already added to the Baking Soda, so it's important to keep the stuff stored in the larder safe from moisture, or it would "go bad" "The chemical reaction that produces the carbon dioxide bubbles occurs immediately upon adding water, milk, eggs or another water-based liquid ingredient. Because of this, it's important to cook the recipe right away, before the bubbles disappear." I thought about the above while I worked, holding off adding the Baking Powder until last. My wife frowns upon some of my methods being at odds with her 4 years of Home Ec.....I beat the eggs with my Mother's old hand egg beater, add the other ingredients to the eggs, excepting the sugar, Baking Powder, and flour, beat them together some more, then that gets dumped into the softened butter along with the sugar and B.P., flour finally added a little at a time. The kids at the high school where I taught 2003-04 liked me for working "outside the box". The old hard-liners, having been there forever (teachers), hated me, especially for not accepting their predominantly Baptist culture. Sorry for going off-thread, perhaps no one will mind. Frank
@Frank Sanoica , I'll have you know that Baptists are some of the best cooks on earth. We like to cook and eat at every opportunity. Especially casseroles.
@Shirley Martin Truth be known, we had bought our dream retirement location deep within the Mark Twain National Forest, it consisting of 7 million acres, with small pockets of "grandfathered" private ownership of land, not considering that this was known as the "Ozarks Bible Belt", where the Baptist Religion has reigned forever, and folks were born there, stayed there, lived lives there, and died there, thus creating a rather clannish situation in which "outsiders" were carefully scrutinized. Not a problem, as far as we were concerned. Gradually, my skills became known, and we made friends with folks living close to us. I repaired a hydraulic pump for one of the best neighbors I could have hoped for, even though it took a 7 mile drive to reach his place. Wouldn't take any money for doing the job, under guise of "not certain of durability or life expectancy" of the repair. Danny was amazed. I was asked by the local School Board to teach Math; their teacher of 15 years had suddenly left, 2 weeks before classes were due to start. I could well imagine the difficulty of finding and hiring someone qualified for the position in such a very rural area, town population of 390. I took the job, as we had been existing on the nest egg the sale of our house outside Phoenix provided, waiting 5 long years of unemployment until the Socialist Security Vault doors swung open. A wonderful life we had there! I suppose I should mention the cooking, after all, OP was about that. Deer hunting was at the top of favored lists for the locals. My students were duly impressed when they learned of my interest in and knowledge of, firearms. Everyone loved venison! Frank
Everybody should listen to @Babs on that- if you haven't eaten Cajun food, you've never eaten food at all!!! It is truly super!
There seems to be some controversy as to who is the best cook. I'm here to help. Everyone please send several samples of some of your best dishes and I'll grade each one. You're welcome.