I am about to make an Italian cream cake, it says to use buttermilk....what is this???(im in the UK by the way) Also i am hoping this is the right kind of cake, a very very light tasting cake like you would get in Italy???

Thanks everyone

Here is the definition of buttermilk:

1 : the liquid left after butter has been churned from milk or cream
2 : cultured milk made by the addition of suitable bacteria to sweet milk

I think the buttermilk you find in the grocery store is probably the latter. Have you looked for it in the milk section? I'm not sure about the buttermilk situation in the UK so maybe it's not even available there.

You can add vinegar to sweet milk to make buttermilk. I'm not sure of the ratio but you could do a search and I'm sure you'd come with it. HTH

Betha_uk, there is also a powdered buttermilk that you just add water to per directions on the container. Don't know if you have that there either and can't remember exactly what section of the store I found it in, but you could ask the store clerk. Best of luck on your cake

For each cup of buttermilk:

Measure a teaspoon of white vinegar or lemon juice into your measuring cup. Add sweet milk to make 1 cup.

Allow to stand 5-15 minutes before using.

Theresa

Add 1 tsp vinegar in a one cup measure, then fill the rest up with regular milk. If you need a bit more tang, add up to 2 more tsps of vinegar to equal 1 TBSP vinegar (although I think that would be too much.) Buttermilk is used to give the cake moisture and a tangy taste. How much tang you want will dictate how much vinegar to use.

tmriga -- happy belated birthday!

Thanks!

Hey, I looked, but you're not there. Are you hiding? (re: your location).

Theresa

shh, she's invisible...