The Sponge/Pound Cake Experiment

I have been reading Ratio, by Michael Ruhlman. I confess that it is my favorite cookery book ever. It is not a recipe book. Instead, it has ratios. Not one recipe, but all the recipes in the whole universe... provided that one can remember the correct ratio.

In the "Batters" section, the first part is entitled "Pound and Sponge Cake." Both of these follow the same ingredients in the exact same proportions; the only thing that varies is the order in which the ingredients are mixed.

A pound cake is mixed using the creaming method (butter and sugar are creamed together, followed by the other ingredients), while a sponge cake uses the foaming method (the eggs and sugar are mixed together, then the rest of the ingredients).

Naturally, I had to experiment with the order of the ingredients... It was unavoidable. The results were revealing. Of course, Ruhlman is right, but what was amazing is the difference that the order in which ingredients are mixed can make.

In my picture, there are two versions of the pound cake: the one in the far left has no rising agents. The cake in the far right is the sponge cake. One of the most interesting things was that the sponge cake rises much more evenly and looks better than the pound cake (which ends up being a more rustic version).

Portable Paella

At Mark Pallen's birthday I saw something I had never seen before. Nick Loman brought a complete paella business. Probably no one there knew this, but the device is called a "paellero" (which must not be confused with "paellera," as in the metal pan in which you cook paella). The whole thing looked incredibly professional and cool. I now suffer from something that should probably be called "paellero envy."

Nick had been asked to produce a vegetarian paella (not as odd as some might think). His dish included beans, broad beens, onions, green peppers and artichokes. The spices were traditional and it was finished with piquillo peppers and lemon wedges, which made it look very nice.

I was very impressed with Nick's knowledge of things such as that the bottom of the paella (the toasty rice called socarrat) is the best bit. But this is not only good, it is the sign of a well cooked paella. Never mind those who think that this might be carcinogenic, they are missing it!

Here it is

On June 19th, I went to the BBC Summer Good Food Show and I loved every minute of it. I got tickets for the MasterChef cook-off and signed up (with Irma) for the Invention Test, which we won. Meeting Dhruv Baker, Matt Follas and Peter Bayless was great. They are all very talented and incredibly nice.

At one of the stands, I also met Louise Sims (Comida y Vida), who suggested that I could start my own blog about food. I like writing, I like food and I certainly have opinions about most things... There might be many reasons not to do this, but I will ignore them...