Episode 14
Chocolate Marble Truffle Cake
A chocolate truffle cake has nothing to do with those rare and pricey fungi that are a culinary delicacy, nor is it directly related to the chocolate truffle, a decadent confection consisting of a chocolate ganache center coated in either chocolate, cocoa powder, or toasted, chopped nuts.
A chocolate truffle cake has many variations. This version features a flourless chocolate truffle cake base under a layer of chocolate marble cheesecake, garnished with fudge ganache.
To make the cheesecake layer, they begin with cream cheese. They mix for three or four minutes to soften it, then blend in sugar and salt. Next, they add sour cream to make the cheesecake creamier and fluffier. The last ingredients are whole eggs blended with vanilla extract. Another three to four minutes of mixing completes the batter.
To make the chocolate truffle cake base, they combine water, sugar, corn syrup, and cream of tartar, which is a leavening agent that works in flourless cakes like this one. It also prevents the sugar they just added from crystalizing. While heating those ingredients to a boil, they soften butter in a mixer, then add melted semi-sweet chocolate, which contains vanilla extract. They mix for another five minutes or so until the chocolate is thoroughly blended in. Then they add the boiled ingredients, then coffee syrup, then blended whole eggs. A final five minutes of mixing, and the chocolate truffle cake batter is ready.
They pump it into the funnel-shaped feeder of a depositor. Workers meanwhile line aluminum cake pans with silicone and place them on a conveyor belt. The depositor is set up to squirt exactly 28 ounces of the thick chocolate truffle cake batter into each pan. They pump the thinner cheesecake batter to the feeder of a second depositor, which squirts an identical amount of cheesecake batter into the pan. This batter is much lighter than the dense chocolate truffle cake batter. So rather than blend, the two batters form separate layers. Using the squeeze bottle, they drizzle on some extra chocolate truffle cake batter and drag a knife back and forth, creating what's known in pastry making as a napoleon-style design. They put the pans in the oven for 90 minutes at 235 degrees Fahrenheit. The long baking time at a relatively low temperature ensures the heat penetrates the dense truffle batter gradually. Otherwise, the outside of the cake would burn before the inside is fully baked. The cakes cool at room temperature, then go into a freezer overnight.
The next day, workers easily pop the rock-solid cakes from the pans thanks to that silicone liner. They place the cake on a cardboard circle, then, with a pastry bag, garnish the edge with fudge ganache. The ganache is made of heavy cream, corn syrup and the same melted chocolate they put in the truffle cake batter. They placed the finished chocolate marble truffle cake into an automatic cake slicer. The turntable rotates after each strike of the blade until the machine has cut the cake into 12 slices and separated them with paper dividers. They wrap the cake in a cardboard band printed with the brand name. Then they put the dessert through a machine, which encases the cake in plastic film, then applies heat to shrink the film taut.
To serve this decadent dessert, you let it defrost at room temperature for four to five hours or in the fridge overnight. Impatient chocoholics take note: you can also defrost a slice in the microwave in just 30 seconds.
Episode 18
Cupcakes
Often frosted and adorned with sprinkles, a cupcake is a sugary indulgence that you don't have to share. We don't really know who invented them, but cupcakes have been around for a century or more, much to the satisfaction of those who want a little cake all to themselves.
These mini cupcakes are the sweetest little things and there's plenty for everyone because they're mass-produced in a factory.
The dairy and nut-free recipe starts with canola oil. A worker pours a measured amount into a huge mixer bowl. A blend of baking powder, sea salt, and other micro ingredients is next. He then adds a big bag of sugar. They'll be making 15,000 mini cupcakes in this batch. Pastry flour flows into the mixer from a silo nearby. He adds cocoa for chocolate flavoring, then activates the mixer to blend it all together. Next are the eggs. They'll act as a binding agent for the chocolate batter and will have a leavening effect during baking. A quick mix folds the eggs into the chocolatey blend.
A pump now transfers the batter to the next station. The bakery's temperature is critical during pumping. Too warm, and the mixture will be too thin to pump. Too cool, and it will be too thick. The pump delivers the batter to a hopper. Down the line a bit, a conveyor moves baking trays forward. A machine uses suctioning devices to pick up paper liners, flip them right-side-up, and insert them in the baking trays. Valves open and dispense the batter in the hopper into the cupcake liners in the pans. The system controls the flow of batter, so it only fills the liners one-third of the way. This leaves room for the cake to rise during baking. The pans move through different levels, with a range of temperature zones over a period of 25 minutes, finally emerging from the other side. During baking, the cupcakes have risen above the liners. They now head into a cooling chamber. They stay in here for 20 minutes, while fans blow air onto them to cool them down. The cooling firms up the cakes.
A robot plunges pin-like tentacles into the cupcakes to lift them out of the pans with the paper liners attached. It transfers them to the packaging conveyor line. Workers pack them in clamshell plastic containers, a dozen to each one. They leave the containers open because they still need to decorate these cupcakes. Ahead, fluffy chocolate icing flows out of a hopper into applicators. They deposit the icing in a swirl onto the cupcakes, adding nearly an inch of height and a lot more sweetness. Down the line, workers load sugary sprinkles into another hopper. A feeder dispenses a few more of the sprinkles onto each of the frosted cupcakes. The containers then ride by a rail that folds the lids over. A pusher device presses down on the lids to close them tightly. The containers of mini cupcakes then meet up with a roller that applies the adhesive-backed labeling.
Before the cupcakes can leave the factory, a technician tests a sample from the production line. He crumbles some of the cake into pods and places them in a machine. The machine probes the water content at a microscopic level to determine if the cupcake is moist enough. Another test evaluates the cupcake's texture.
When the samples pass this technological scrutiny, the cupcakes are ready for human taste buds.
