Just want to ask what do you mean by 1 stick of butter? Is it the same with 1 cup butter? pls help. just new in baking... thanks!
Since you say you are new to baking I will throw this out there. You may already know but if the recipe calls for butter you should use real butter not margarine.
Melissa
Well ....... not really.
I was in my 20's before I knew there was a difference between butter and margarine. Coming from a family of 6 kids and being dirt poor on top of it, it would have been a cardinal sin to spend that kind of money on "butter" instead of the "yellow stick of fat" product that we grew up calling butter.
When I finally actually tasted real butter, I thought it was the nastiest, bitterest tasting piece of crap I'd ever had. (So where DOES that description of "sweety creamery butter" come from? 
)
So for my entire life, up to and including today, if a recipe calls for butter, I use my margarine. I also use the cheapest margarine on the shelf (Imperial). And people rave over my cookies. When the word gets out that "Phil's wife sent in cookies!", hubby tells me there is a stampede. The Cadillac customers complained (to GM!) when I had to cancel the daily cookie order because I got too busy .... they don't like the replacement cookies.
(My favorite story is the Cadillac customer who was stuffing her purse with cookies and telling an employee how she always takes these cookies to her grandchildren. The employee told her, "you know those aren't the same cookies?" Customer stopped and said, "What do you mean Not The Same?" Employee says, "The lady who made them before stopped making them." Customer started pulling cookies out of her purse and putting them back!) 
So while I'm sure that butter-lovers and butter-users can tell a big difference, I use margarine exclusively for all recipes.
You also should consider that technology and new R&D has made a difference in the quality of margarine used by my mom 50 years ago to the margarines and butter-like products used today. Hubby grew up on real butter and wouldn't eat margarine ... until he discovered "I can't believe it's not butter" brand. Now that's all he eats.
I agree with Debi.........I have always used margarine, and gave real butter a try after reading about it on the forums.
The very first time I used it, everone asked me what I did differently! I thought they liked it, but when I told them, they said don't do that again! Everyone thought it had a funny taste.
I'm sticking with margarine..........my pocketbook really likes it!
I grew up with real butter because we were not supposed to eat the stuff that is "only one molecule away from plastic..." according to my mom. My question is, If I decide to switch to margarine from butter, will this effect the texture and consisticy of my cookies? I'd like to switch...actually my wallet would like to switch.. 
I am the sam way, I grew up on margarine and do my frosting with it. Tried the real thing once and no one liked the frosting as well. SOOO I will stick to my tried and true margarine.
I'm sure preference has a lot to do with what you grew up with.
I may have come from the wrong side of the tracks, but it kills me when I hear cooking shows, commercials, ads, etc., spout about "only the finest ingredients....just like mom used!"
My mom never used the "finest ingredients" in anything. "Back in my day" (she said, as she dated herself and labeled herself as officially old!) moms staying home was the norm and so was having large families. Raising that many kids on one income was a challenge.
There was no such thing as "gourmet" shops back then and she (or none of the other moms we knew) would make a special trip to that kind of store to buy European chocolate, real butter, or imported coconut just to make cookies for a bunch of kids. They bought whatever the local A&P had on the shelf .... usually the store brand and only when it was on sale.
So I make the cookies that we all remember from our childhood ..... using canned spices (I've never even seen anyone scrape nutmeg or cinnamon in real life!) and cheap margarine.
Mmmmmm......good!!!!
I'm sure preference has a lot to do with what you grew up with.
I may have come from the wrong side of the tracks, but it kills me when I hear cooking shows, commercials, ads, etc., spout about "only the finest ingredients....just like mom used!"
My mom never used the "finest ingredients" in anything. "Back in my day" (she said, as she dated herself and labeled herself as officially old!) moms staying home was the norm and so was having large families. Raising that many kids on one income was a challenge.
There was no such thing as "gourmet" shops back then and she (or none of the other moms we knew) would make a special trip to that kind of store to buy European chocolate, real butter, or imported coconut just to make cookies for a bunch of kids. They bought whatever the local A&P had on the shelf .... usually the store brand and only when it was on sale.
So I make the cookies that we all remember from our childhood ..... using canned spices (I've never even seen anyone scrape nutmeg or cinnamon in real life!) and cheap margarine.
Mmmmmm......good!!!!
You kill me!! 
I think I am going to just bite the bullet, step out of my pretentious box...hahahahha...and by some damn margerine! I'm going for broke with these cookies at a whopping 3.50 a pound of butter!! 
I have never tried margerine in any of my recipes because when I was young a neighbor worked for a renown margerine co. and told us it wasn't good for us and not to eat it. My mom never bought it after that. She said if she wanted to eat plastic she would buy plastic. Needless to say neither me or any of my children have ever used margerine. Does it make a difference in the texture of baked products?
(I've never even seen anyone scrape nutmeg or cinnamon in real life!)
Me neither! Isnt it funny, at least to me because of my mother, that she would through a fit about real butter versus the margarine thing, but by a ton of hamburger helper (like the world was ending tomorrow), blue box mac n cheese, cool whip over real whipping cream, canned veggies and dry spices! Go figure!!
Nope no yellow fake goop for me! Can't stand it, tastes like a plastic wonder bread bag to me.
Give me, butter, creamy butter, creamy sweet unsalted butter!
Hey Indydebi, As quoted in Miss Congenality - - - "But that is because I am a miserable, grumpy elitist - and that works for me!" BTW, I scrap nutmeg and cinnamon too! 
So I guess, when you're an elitist your always the oddball.
Edited to add: Not to steal the thread, but I bet you can figure which side of the debate I am on with box vs scratch also.
Nope no yellow fake goop for me! Can't stand it, tastes like a plastic wonder bread bag to me.
[/i]
Wonderbread...eeegads!! I remember once when I was a kid and wanted Wonderbread (I saw that cool commercial with the kids who were eating PB sand's and playing outside...it made you cool to eat wonderbread, dont you know?)...I asked my mom if we could by some and she told me...I kid you not..."Wonderbread is wonder bread because with all the crap they put in it, you wonder how people stand to digest it without keeling over...we by store brand in this house..."
She was also the same woman would buy pre-made cakes...put them in her cake carrier or on her cake plate and call them her own. I asked once, when I was old enough to catch on..."mom, how can you call this cake handmade?" again, she had the answer "it took my hands to take it out of the stores crappy packaging and place it on a nice plate..."
My mom...she was one in a million!!
It's so bizarre that this "plastic" topic has come up...I just received an email yesterday talking about it. I use both, depending on the recipe, BUT...
Pass The Butter ~ ~ ~ ~ This is interesting . . ..
Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys.When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into theresearch wanted a pay back so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back. It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter. How do you like it? They have come out with some clever new flavorings.
DO YOU KNOW...the difference between margarine and butter? Read on to the end...gets very interesting! Both have the same amount of calories. Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams. Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard Medical Study. Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods. Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few only because they are added!Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods. Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years.
And now, for Margarine...
Very high in trans fatty acids. Triple risk of coronary heart disease.Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol) Increases the risk of cancers up to five fold. Lowers quality of breast milk Decreases immune response. Decreases insulin response. And here's the most disturbing fact.... HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!
Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC...This fact alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular structure of the substance). You can try this yourself: Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will note a couple of things:
* No flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it (that should tell you something)
* It does not rot or smell differently because it has no nutritional value
* Nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weenie microorganisms will not a find a home to grow.
Why? Because it is nearly plastic. Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?
THESE are NOT my words...as I said, they came in an email. I prefer the taste of Blue Bonnet myself, except in buttercream. And we thought this topic was about how much butter was in a stick. hmmm.
WOW!! I always thought that if it said "butter", you HAVE to use the REAL butter, because margarine would mess the recipe up. That is just way I have always heard. I think I will try it now with margarine because, as someone mentioned before, butter costs $3.50 a pound!! I just bought 2 pounds of salted butter and 2 pounds of unsalted butter last week trying to stock up on it. Well, I will use it and the margarine, too!! Save on my money, too! Thanks for the tips!
Tupperware on Toast ... Hmmmm.... do I see a new catering menu item? (kidding!! I'm kidding!! 
)
dessertdiva, my mom had a slight variation on the wonderbread thing, "It's wonderbread all right. They're wondering how they can convince people to spend that much money for a loaf of bread! The people who buy it then wonder why they're broke all the time!"
A continuance on the Wonder bread thing......we use to take the crust off of it wad it up into a ball and use it for bombs when we went to war with the neighbor kids.
The neighbor kids used dirt bombs that broke up on impact. Our Wonder bread bombs were deadly. I'm surprised we did really hurt anyone.
You know, maybe this is why I love that dang Miss Congeniality movie so much. Quote: I am in a dress, I have gel in my hair, I haven't slept all night, I'm starved, AND I'm armed might I add with Wonder bread! Don't MESS with me!
I know, off topic but the OP already has her answer.
Did you know that Wonder Bread and a little white glue all mixed together real good makes a form of modeling clay? That's all it's really good for isn't it?
I think my dear, you have just given me my new recipe for "cake dummy fondant"...LMAO. As long as they are coated with shelac, they'll stand the test of time!!!
Whew! This topic grew a long way.... Anyway, i have another question to ask you guys. If a certain design of a cake requires a 2 layer recipe what do you mean by that? Should I double the recipe that i usually bake? Thanks!
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%