Different Mixing Methods

Decorating By anricat Updated 13 Dec 2009 , 7:34pm by anricat

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anricat Posted 13 Dec 2009 , 3:26am
post #1 of 7

Does anyone know why different recipes use different mixing methods for cake?

The two I'm familiar with:

1. Cream butter + sugar, then add eggs, then add dry ingredients alternating with wet ingredients
2. Add dry ingredients, cut in butter and mix until crumbly, then add all wet ingredients and mix on medium-high.

Do these methods produce different results? Does it depend on the type of cake?

6 replies
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Cakepro Posted 13 Dec 2009 , 5:49am
post #2 of 7

You need the book BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking by Shirley Corriher. She goes into great detail on this subject and this is a FANTASTIC book with some amazing recipes too.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1416560785/?tag=cakecentral-20

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anricat Posted 13 Dec 2009 , 6:53pm
post #3 of 7

That looks great! I'll have to check that out.

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sadsmile Posted 13 Dec 2009 , 7:25pm
post #4 of 7

They should make a video book of her. She is so personable and you just want to lean on your arm and listen to her make sense of the mysterious baking dilemmas, and then get up and give her a great big hug.

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anricat Posted 13 Dec 2009 , 7:30pm
post #5 of 7

amazon also recommended the Alton Brown baking book, which looks interesting too. I added both to my wish list.

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Mike1394 Posted 13 Dec 2009 , 7:31pm
post #6 of 7
Quote:
Originally Posted by anricat

Does anyone know why different recipes use different mixing methods for cake?

The two I'm familiar with:

1. Cream butter + sugar, then add eggs, then add dry ingredients alternating with wet ingredients
2. Add dry ingredients, cut in butter and mix until crumbly, then add all wet ingredients and mix on medium-high.

Do these methods produce different results? Does it depend on the type of cake?




Making a cake is more about technique than the actual ingredients. How you incorporate in the ingredients is going to be different than the way I do it. So our cakes will be different, even though we use the same ingredients.

I bet the #2cake is more dense. The reason I say this is the fat is covering the flour. This is where the word shortening came in. You covered them in fat, and have shortened the gluten strands so they can't fully form now.

#1 cake if creamed correctly the butter, and suagr mixture will have lil air pockets this will help give you a fluffy cake.

Mike

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anricat Posted 13 Dec 2009 , 7:34pm
post #7 of 7

I haven't tried making the same recipe with both of these methods, but I did just make two different cakes with these methods and actually, cake #1 came out lighter and fluffier.

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