Hey anyone know how to make a nice fluffy butter cake for novelty cakes or even just a round or square cake. I normally use packet cake and from that I get a nice light fluffy cake, but when I make my own from scratch it's never the same it's heavier and not the same texture as the packet one. can anyone give me a great recipe for butter cake or give me the secret of how to make the perfect butter cake.

Comparing scratch cakes to mix cakes isn't a fair comparison (to either catergory).

Mix cakes contain emulsifiers, preservatives, etc. while scratch cakes (commonly) don't so the results will never be the same.

A doctored cake mix recipe might be a good option as it has the light texture you seem to like combined with a more homemade taste.

One of the most popular doctored recipes on CC is the WASC cake.

Here's the expanded flavors version recipe:

http://tinyurl.com/2cu8s4

Another good one:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-6948--Enhanced-Mix-Recipe.html

Lovely scratch buttercake recipe:

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2374-Southern-Heirloom-Cake.html

HTH

Hi Jan,
Thank you so muck for the recipes I'll try them out. Can you please help with something else, I'm from Australia and we measure our butter in grams not sticks, so do you know how many grams of butter are in a stick of butter.

The other question is you sent me the link for Enhanced Mix Recipe, but I'm not sure what DH Mix is??????

Cake Flour do you think I can find this in our supermarkets NO! Can I make my own?

1 stick of butter = 1/2 cup (not sure what the grams are)

DH Mix = Duncan Hines mix, a popular brand of box cake mix

Cake flour is a low protein/low gluten flour that produces a more tender cake. It's not a mix you can make - sorry


Box cake vs. scratch cake is almost an apples and oranges situation. A butter scratch cake is going to be denser than a butter box cake - it's just the nature of the beast.

You could try making scratch genoise or other sponge-style cakes if you want to stick with scratch. They will have a lighter texture.

If moistness is an issue for you, you can brush the baked cake with simple syrup, or try recipes that use vegetable oil instead of butter as the veg oil tends to make them moister.

here are cake flour substitute measurements and ingredients: http://www.recipezaar.com/87689

perhaps try a yellow cake recipe rather than a butter cake recipe. this one has butter in it and a nice flavor and texture, not as dense as a pound cake or butter cake. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/109358

Jodietas--you can make your own cake flour,this came from a box of Argo corn starch.To make one cup you need 3/4 c + 2 tabelspoons all purpose flour+2 tablespoons of cornstrarch.Stir it before you use it. For a light cake you could make merginue from 2 egg whites and fold that into your cake.

Here's a link to CC acronyms:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-2926-.html

DH (in this instance) refers to Duncan Hines cake mix.

Here's a thread on American cake mixes (packets):

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-96911-.html

Weighing butter (in grams):

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-43144-.html
(See bonjovibabe's post.)

Converting recipes from one measuring system to another is complicated by the different sized measuring cups used in U.S., UK, NZ and AU:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-582763-.html

Also each country has a different selection of flours:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-580414-.html

More info on flour (probably more than you ever wanted to know):

http://tinyurl.com/yq5yzg

http://tinyurl.com/39x7l7

http://tinyurl.com/38vdf9

However, I think your "plain" flour would work well for our "all purpose" (AP), and you can make an acceptable cake flour substitute by using plain flour and corn flour (according to substitutions chart given above).

Converting U.S. recipes to AU usage:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-100741-.html

More conversion charts:

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-776021-.html

HTH

I'm an Aussie too, and for a "stick of butter" I just cut one of our 250gram blocks in half, it's close enough, about 10 grams out I think

^^ that's what I do too.

Thanks for all the great ideas, I'll let you know how I go. I'm loving this site so many helpful people.

Thanks Jodie