American Recipes For The English...
Decorating By queenarmadillo Updated 11 Oct 2006 , 3:48pm by JanH
This weekend I plan to attempt my first, properly decorated, non-victoria sponge cake. Have found a lovely (sounding) recipe for an Orange Cake, but could use some help with understanding the terms used:
How many ounces is a cup? I dont have measuring cups and I doubt my mugs will be very helpful when making cakes
Is All Purpose flour what Brits refer to as Plain Flour or Self-Raising Flour?
Thanks for any help you can give me, and appologies if these questions have been asked millions of times before.
Good morning, this is the measurements on my cup.
1 cup -8oz
3/4 cup- 6oz
1/2 cup- 4oz
1/4 cup- 2oz
and to me all purpose flour is plain flour, hope this has helped some and good luck
Hey QueenArmadillo
Here's a good link that I use to convert US to European/Australian...
Hope it helps
-- Fi
http://conversions.cookingcache.com
That was very helpful thanks.
May I also ask what shortening is? It sounds kind of like vegetable lard, but I cant imagine people making buttercream with that.
Or perhaps it is also called shortening over here but sold as a specialty cake product?
Is Crisco a brand of shortening, or something different? It seems to be mentioned a lot in the same context as shortening, but perhaps Im just getting confused.
That is correct. It is a vegetable lard. I personally do not like to use it in my buttercream and only use real butter.
Crisco is a brand of it as well.
Thats right... crisco seems to be the big thing with buttercream in the US (from what I'm reading on this site especially). I use butter - I'm weird I guess - but also Australian, so that probably explains ALOT! hehehe... we also have products called "so lite" and "cream cup" which I am guess is identical to Crisco... I don't like it much though... still like my old fashioned true blue buttercream.
Thanks. I think Im going to have to experiment with the shortening method now that I know what it is--but when I make real butter buttercream I have to make a double batch because I eat as much as I put on the cake, so the shortening will probably have to do something spectacular in order to convert me.
The new recipe I'm looking at says to "cream" the butter and shortening together, which I assumed is a fancy way of saying mix well. Should it involve a food processor or is it a mix by hand with a wooden spoon kind of term.
When I cream it I just mix it well with my mixer. Just make sure the sugar and shortening (butter in my case) is mixed to a very creamy consistancy.
When I "cream" the butter & shortening together I use my hand mixer. I don't have a KA mixer yet. 
I guess you could use a food preocessor.? The term cream is just another way to say mix well. When it's done correctly the product will look creamy. Maybe that's why we say that.? 
The conversion chart that Feefs posted is great....because you have to watch the weight conversions...like 1 cup of sugar doesn't weigh 8 oz, it is 6 oz I think...but 8 oz milk (liquid) weighs 8 oz
Hope this isn't confusing but if you stick to that chart, you should do fine...
Perhaps CC should sell measuring cups in their store!
Good luck!
J
Thanks so much for all the help. I now understand exactly what I am supposed to do with this recipe (although from past experience I will have to practice lots before I manage to do it all right at the same time).
JaneK: The conversion chart is brilliant, I think I have previously used sites to convert things where the same weight is given for a cup of anything, and they haven't worked out too well. I will be keeping my eyes open for measuring cups in England as I have recently come across lots of recipes that use them as the main measure so it would probably be simpler to have a set than keep converting things.
MrsMissey: I'm probably going to use the "Beat and Bake Orange Cake" recipe off this site because its a scratch mix (which I think is part of the fun) that shouldnt have any lumps of oranges/nuts in it (which is a personal issue about lumpy food). Will be filling with chocolate buttercream this weekend because Im not convinced Ive had desert unless there was chocolate in it, but if it works well then intend to repeat for halloween and use orange coloured/flavoured fondant to make it look like a pumpkin.
The vegetable lard/shortening/crisco is used to stabalize buttercream - it's used a lot in areas that are more humid/hot b/c it won't melt as easily as butter - so no buttercream sliding off the cake! This is especially helpful for outdoor parties. Most people in the states aren't really into fruitcakes w/ royal icing and marzipan - I've never actually had one but fruitcake is usually referred to as "dreaded" and a "bad Christmas gift" - prob. b/c the fruitcakes people buy from stores are nasty - I'm sure REAL fruitcakes are much better - but there's still that "uneasy" feeling and memory behind them that keeps them off of most American's flavor lists..... we also don't use marzipan much or royal icing except for decoration - not so much to cover the cake.
Many people still use all butter buttercreams, but sometimes the all-vegetable shortening or a mixture of shortening and butter is used so that you can make things like roses or decorations that require a stiffer mixture - I'm not sure if you would just use royal icing for that where you're from, but most of the time in America I think people use all-shortening or the butter/shortening recipe for roses and stiff borders, etc.
Good luck with your recipe! I hope it turns out great!
Your cake sounds wonderful....
But for more info on recipe preparation I found this site helpful:
http://www.baking911.com/cakes/101.htm
Please post a picture when your creation is complete
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