Cakes are fun. I like everything about them, from designing the flavors to playing with the leftover batter in the sink like a five year old before I wash everything. Designing the flavors, though, is arguably more difficult than playing with batter in the sink. Luckily, people's taste in dessert generally follows their taste in normal food.
I tend to think of food as lying on a spectrum of low-fat and crunchy to high-fat and creamy.
Normal foods look like this:
Desserts look like this:
You can use someone's taste in normal foods and other desserts to figure out what they might like in a cake.
For example, my mom is a low-fat liking person who likes crunchy textures. This means she likes salads, hard candy, and crispy cookies like tuiles. Since there is no crunchy kind of cake, the kind of cake she likes is the lowest fat cake (sponge cake) with the least creamy frosting (Chantilly cream, a lightly sweetened whipped cream). If possible, it is great to dress it with fresh fruit.
My boyfriend, on the other hand, loves peanut butter based foods, as well as macaroni and cheese. In terms of cake, it is smart to get him a cake that is fairly higher-fat. However, I know he does not like completely creamy textures (he does not go for non-chocolate puddings such as creme brulee or panna cotta). So, I usually go with a torte or molten chocolate cake for him, with a chocolate ganache or a fruit glaze for contrast. I can also make a light chocolate sponge cake, but I have to fill it with a heavier frosting such as buttercream. German chocolate cake can also be a good compromise.
Cake math is really fun. Try asking your friends what food they like, and see if it corresponds to desserts! It actually works fairly often.
No comments:
Post a Comment