Caramelix Scale

The cake was written for an 18 cm pan. Yours is 24. The ganache has to pour, not set. The caramel must stop at exactly the right shade. Caramelix Scale is the calculator that lives next to your marble slab. Drag the rim of a pan to the size in your cupboard and the whole recipe follows: every gram, the eggs as whole eggs plus a spoonful, and a side view showing how deep the batter will stand. Tap the pan to turn a round into a square or a long tray, then keep the scaled version as a recipe of its own. For ganache, pull the line between chocolate and cream in the bowl. Marks on the side show where glaze, cake filling and rolled truffles sit for dark, milk, white or ruby chocolate, adjusted to the cocoa percentage on your bag. Enter the whole batch or just the chocolate you have, and get cream, glucose and butter in grams with a method to follow. Sugar gets a tall thermometer you slide with one finger. The syrup changes colour as it climbs from thread to soft ball to dark caramel, with the cold water test and what each stage is good for. Tempering is where it all comes together. Choose tabling, seeding or short bursts in the microwave, then turn the probe dial to log each reading. Your line is drawn over the ideal melt, cool and rewarm curve, and the moment the chocolate runs too hot you see exactly where to bring it back. Once it's in temper, start a five-minute test strip and note how it set. Timers for setting ganache, cooling sponges or overnight crystallizing keep counting while you get on with something else, several at once. Every batch lands in the journal with its curve: how many set glossy this month, your current streak, and which chocolate keeps giving you trouble. Made for home bakers moving into chocolate work, pastry students practising for their practicals, and cake makers tired of guessing pan sizes. Your slab is waiting.