When I made the Strawberry Shortcake last week, I finally followed Julia Child's advice and hand-whipped the cream over an ice bath. I had previously thought she was a little bit silly to be so devoted to this technique. It seemed tedious to set up the ice bath, tiring on your whipping arm, and time consuming. But now I understand. It doesn't take all that long, around five minutes. The cream is whipped evenly, instead of stiff peaks on top and runny liquid underneath as often happens with hand held beaters. Without that noisy machine in my hands, I was more in tune with the cream's consistency, producing a glorious result.
Speaking of which, I also followed allrecipe.com's advice on whipping egg whites when I was making the sponge cake. They suggest you do it over a bath of simmering water because warmer egg whites bind better. On their suggestion, I was careful to stop before they were dry and they were right! My egg whites folded into the cake mixture beautifully, without little islands and spots of egg white breaking away.
The joys of following good advice.
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