Here's What It Means To Tort A Cake
Baking a cake can feel like a struggle for anyone who's not a professional. Achieving perfect, even layers, smooth frosting on the sides, and precisely positioned decorations is a tall task. Even delicious cakes that are incredibly simple to make can be a minefield for mistakes.
If you're brave enough to take on a cake for the first time instead of buying one from the store, we salute you. Cake decorating is an art, and every artist needs certain tools to get the job done. For example, The Strategist reported, cooking spray is a must to make sure your cake comes out of the pan easily. Pastry tips give you more options for decorating the final product. And, a bench scraper will make your life easier when smoothing out the sides of the cake. Next, you'll need ingredients that are somewhat high quality, according to Insider. Good butter is important, and so is pure vanilla extract.
But, if you follow your recipe and still don't get a result that you like, you might want to consider torting your cake, per Taste of Home.
Torting the layers ensures uniform thickness
Anyone who's ever baked a cake knows that you must begin with perfectly baked layers. But, professionals have a method to achieve uniformity. According to Taste of Home, the pros use a method called torting to level out each layer of cake.
For this method, you'll need a long, serrated knife and your cake should be completely cooled on top of a baking rack. Once those two prerequisites are in place, you can move your cakes to a cutting board and slice horizontally through the middle of the layer with the knife. You'll end up with more layers that are thinner and around the same size. Be sure to flip the top half over when you assemble the cake so you'll be frosting a flat surface instead of the domed top.
Torting gets its title from a different kind of cake entirely. A torte is a dense cake that's very rich in flavor, per Martha Stewart. Sometimes they're layered with jams or icing, and sometimes they're a single layer. The Linzer Torte is considered the oldest dessert in the world.