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ICING ON THE CAKE

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By MARY A. KEITH

Tribune correspondent

Published: March 1, 2009

Is it necessary to refrigerate cakes that have dairy ingredients? This cake starts with a mix, but I have to add sour cream to the batter. And the frosting has milk in it. Must it be refrigerated to be safe?

Just using dairy products in the batter does not mean in must be refrigerated. Most cakes and cookies are dry enough that they can be safely stored at room temperature. Most frostings don't need refrigeration, either. The amount of sugar is usually enough preservative for that. But if there is a cream, pudding or custard filling, or if the topping/frosting is a cream or pudding, then it is moist enough that, yes, it does have to be refrigerated. Whipped cream toppings should be refrigerated for safety as well as quality. Cream and custard pies based on milk and egg must be refrigerated. They are moist enough to let microbes grow.

I'd like to try the strawberry sorbet recipe that was in the paper recently. But with the vodka in it, I don't want to give it to children or any elderly people. What can I use instead of the vodka?

I don't think there is much you can do without seriously changing either the texture of the sorbet or the method of preparing the recipe. The reason the vodka is there is to keep it from freezing into a solid rock. Alcohol doesn't freeze solid the way water or strawberry juice does. If you remove it, the mixture will be an ice cube after storage. Adding any other flavored extract would cover the flavor of the fresh strawberries. Ice cream stays relatively soft because of the fat (cream) and sugar or corn syrup used. You could try an old way of making still-frozen ices. Prepare the sorbet recipe, minus the vodka, and put it in a metal cake pan. Put it in the freezer. When it starts to get stiff, take it out and beat it with a fork. Return to the freezer and repeat the beating every half-hour until it is very stiff. The more often you beat it, the more air will be in it and the less rigid it will be. Move it from the freezer to the refrigerator about 20 minutes before you want to serve it to let it soften.

How can I reduce the amount of sugar in strawberry jam without getting syrup? When I try it, the stuff never gets thick. Even using low-cal sweeteners doesn't help.

Unfortunately, pectin is very particular about what it needs to gel. Without the right amount of sugar and acid it won't set. While artificial sweeteners will add the sweet flavor, they don't have the right shape or amount to fix the pectin. They also don't preserve the color the way sugar does, so the jam usually gets dark. There are gelatin-based freezer jams that depend on the cold to be stiff and stay bright-colored. Sure-Jel Lite uses less sugar, and Mrs. Wages Light Home Jel does not need any sugar to gel. However, products made with these also usually don't keep their flavor and color as well as the regular jams. You also don't get as much jam from a flat of berries. You can find them in grocery stores in the area.

Looking on the Internet, I found a lot of recommendations for substituting all-purpose flour for cake flour in recipes. Some say to add corn starch, some call for baking powder and some just change the quantity of flour. Which really works?

In the great majority of recipes, simply removing 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour from each cup after it's been sifted will be sufficient. The significant difference between the flours is the amount of protein (gluten). Cake flour has less protein, which makes a softer crumb. All-purpose flour, with more protein, makes a tougher crumb, so you can have a slice of bread that holds together. You could add a tablespoon of cornstarch to the sifted flour to replace some of the starch, but in most recipes it won't make a big difference. Adding baking powder without removing the 2 tablespoons of flour would make the cake rise more, but it's still likely to be less tender.

Mary A. Keith, a nutritionist and health agent at Hillsborough County Extension, can be reached at (813) 744-5519 or mkeith@ufl.edu.

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