Free Baking with Less Sugar by Joanne Chang

golden brown and springs back when you poke it in the center. Remove it from the oven and let cool upside down on a wire rack supported by the inner tube. When the cake is cool, first run a knife around the sides of the pan to slip off the pan, then along the inside of the tube and the bottom to loosen the cake. Quickly invert onto a wire rack or plate and then pop it right-side up onto a wire rack or serving plate.
    6. To make the glaze: In a bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, coconut milk, and coconut until well mixed and somewhat thick but still easy to pour.
    7. Spoon the glaze over the top and sides of the cake, allowing the extra glaze to drip off the cake. Transfer the cake to a serving plate if it is not already on one. Sprinkle with more coconut, if you like.
    8. The glazed cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

YELLOW BIRTHDAY CAKE WITH FLUFFY CHOCOLATE GANACHE FROSTING
    A few years ago, some intrepid passionate professors at Harvard started a basic science class called “Science and Cooking.” It was an introductory chemistry class in which they hoped to interest students in learning about chemistry by tapping into their obsession with food. It worked! It quickly became hugely popular, and there’s currently a wait list of more than three hundred students wanting to take the class.
    The professors reached out to various top chefs around the world to see if they would offer some real-life perspective on how professional chefs use chemistry and science in their everyday work. They went for the gusto, asking food luminaries like Ferran Adrià, David Chang, Dan Barber, and José Andrés, and amazingly, all said yes. As a local pastry chef, I was asked by the professors if I wanted to take on a lecture. I looked at the list of chefs and immediately realized that “which one of these does not look like the other” was at play, and there was no way I could be a part of this.
    But they were ever gracious and insisted that I try, and so we embarked upon a class outline that miraculously they approved. I quaked in my shoes giving that first lecture, but as the years have gone on, it’s become one of the events I look forward to all year.
    Why share with you this long story? The first lecture I ever gave was a simple overview of what happens when you bake a basic yellow cake from a chemistry point of view. I made a yellow cake with no baking powder, another with no baking soda, one with twice the leavening, etc. I also baked one with half the sugar to show how, without the extra sugar, not only was it not as sweet, but it also wasn’t as tender—except that it didn’t really work out that way. In fact some students actually preferred the half-sugar cake and it made me rethink how much sugar we automaticallyput into our cakes. The half-sugar cakes were delicious and soft and wonderful.
    This cake will not stay quite as fresh as one made with 400 g/2 cups of granulated sugar (as the original recipe calls for) and 200 g/1 cup of confectioners’ sugar in the frosting, so it’s best enjoyed within a day of baking. It is perfectly sweet even at less than half the sugar.

    MAKES
ONE
DOUBLE-LAYER 8-IN [20-CM] CAKE
360 g/3 cups cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 / 2 tsp baking soda
1 / 2 tsp kosher salt
240 g/1 cup crème fraîche (see page 24)
3 Tbsp whole milk
4 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
175 g/ 3 / 4 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
1 vanilla bean
340 g/1 1 / 2 cups unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
    FLUFFY CHOCOLATE GANACHE FROSTING
360 g/1 1 / 2 cups heavy cream
340 g/12 oz chopped bittersweet chocolate or chocolate chips
115 g/ 1 / 2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 6 to 8 pieces, at room temperature
    1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F [175°C]. Butter and flour two 8-in [20-cm] round cake pans, or butter the pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.
    2. In a medium bowl,