I have been looking for a recipe that would give me the light and fluffiness of a store bought cake. I prefer to back from scratch. Any ideas you have would really help or an explanation of why home made cakes are so dense. I have been using the Sylvia Weinstock cake which I love!!! I even thought of going to a chiffon cake to see if that would give me the texture I am looking for. Any advice would help.
Thanks!!!

I feel the same about the lightness of the storebought, so that is why I generally doctor cake mixes (WASC and choc WASC)- the best of both worlds. But recently, I discovered how much better scratch is. I tried the chocolate cake from "The confetti cakes cookbook" and it was wonderful! I plan to try the WASC from scratch in recipes. I do prefer to use a denser scratch when I carve (Hershey's choc in recipes is good) but the confetti cakes carves nicely when frozen. And the WASC carves nicely too. Personally, I dont' know the food science behind why scratch are usually more dense. I will hope that someone with more knowledge replies...

I would assume it is the preservatives that make (and keep) store bought cakes that texture?

A cake I grew up with is the one that is commonly used for swiss rolls in other parts of the world but we always called it sponge cake and it is very light and fluffy.
I normally use the quantities below in a loaf tin to get a good depth but just increase/decrease the ingredients to get the depth of cake you want in the pan size you want.

3 eggs
75g/3 oz caster (superfine) sugar
75g/3 oz self-raising (self-rising) flour
Caster (superfine) sugar for dusting

75 ml/5 tbsp raspberry jam (conserve)

Method:

Whisk together the eggs and sugar for about 10 minutes until very pale and thick and the mixture trails off the whisk in ribbons (and a figure of 8 made with a spoon or the whisk holds shape for a couple of seconds or so). Fold in the flour and spoon into a greased and lined tin. Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C/400°F/gas mark 4 for about 10 minutes until well risen and firm to the touch. Turn the cake onto a cooling rack and remove the lining paper. Leave to cool.

I don't know if this wil help but when I want a fluffier cake (like when I wanna make cupcakes) I just add in a 1/2 to 1 cup of sour cream. They are much lighter when I do that. Give it a try it may work for you also.

I agree , some people do not agree but I personally luv the store bought taste [he,he ] I have baked from scratch , mix , doctored mix, wasc, and even tried the add sourcream to my scratch and mix ,, nothing works bc they have their own technique and shortenings , and perservitives , [big companies] .... so even though I make cakes for clients now and then when I crave the taste I just go buy them unfrosted at sams , -- goodluck , if you ever find a recipe that does taste like it post it [he ,he

Duncan Hines white cake mix has no preservatives--just saying.

Double post

List of ingredients for those who don't care to do a lot of clicking. Just sayin.

Sugar, Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vegetable Oil Shortening (Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Propylene Glycol Mono- and Diesters Of Fats, Mono- and Diglycerides), Wheat Starch, Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate). Contains 2% Or Less Of: Modified Food Starch, Dextrose, Soy Protein, Whey, Salt, Polyglycerol Esters Of Fatty Acids, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Soy Lecithin, Maltodextrin, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Gum Arabic, Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum.

Yes, a chiffon cake will be much lighter. You can also try applying the chiffon method to any recipe and it will make it MUCH lighter.

That's a lot of ingredients!










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What if i I prefer whack a biscuits in a ready made rotisserie fowl?

I was kicking myself when I ran out of dicalcium phosphate the other day. Totally cheesed!

I have a Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Classic white cake mix and it says
no preservatives on the top of the box.

Kory, what is the chiffon method?

K8- the "no preservatives" was probably describing the box it came it and not the mix inside....hahaha
In all seriousness though, it is possible that those long-unpronouncable names in the ingredients list are not preservatives but just official-mad-scientist terms for ordinary ingredients. The most commonly used preservative is sodium benzoate and it's not on the list.

Esterification is the reaction of an alcohol (the propelyne glycol, which is also used in lots of bakery emulsions) to a fat or fatty acid, to produce an emulsifier.

Mono diglycerides are often added to bread to keep it from going stale, or to margarine as an emulsifier.

Glycerol is glycerine.

To get a fluffier cake perhaps try folding in the dry ingredients with a wire whisk instead of in your mixer. I do this with my mud cakes when I want it more like 'ordinary' chocolate cake and bang the tin on the bench several times to get the denser 'mud cake' cake. I always use a wire whisk when making my sponges, these, I have been told taste and feel like store bought.

HTH!

Cheers!

Duncan Hines. Always fluffy, moist and reliable.

So I'm gonna eat these preservative free cuppies I just made with buttermilk and some lime juice and the Duncan Hines cake mix that everyone I love deserves. The one that's always fluffy moist and reliable.

What is the internal temperature 'sposed to be when a cupcake is done? Anybody know?

Yummm. What's your recipe? TIA

has anyone tried the cake enhancer that king arthur flour/baker's catalog has recently put in their catalog? i know they test everything they offer so it sounds promising.

i'll give you a tip for scratch baking that can make a fluffier cake, beat each egg very,very well separately and in a separate glass bowl (a metal bowl won't work as the egg reacts with the metal), add it into the batter separately and mix, one at a time. Even if the batter is in a metal bowl this will still help alot. I recently saw a stand mixer with a glass bowl somewhere and I thought that would be perfect for cakes.

I just used three whole eggs, some olive oil, buttermilk and a few short squirts of lime juice & the white cake mix. Be dynamite with some chocolate icing--tomorrow.

I'm definitely enjoying myself.

It's not the preservatives that give a box cake its texture. They just prolong the shelf life. It's the soy lethicin and the guar gum and the gum arabic that give a box cake its texture. It's the gums that allow it to take in extra sugar and liquid and still bake up the same.

A lot of ingredients sound scary when you call them by their scientific names. Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Monocalcium Phosphate is just a long winded way of saying Baking Powder. They have to, by law, list out all of the vitamins that are in Enriched Bleached Flour and baking powder and the shortening they use. Thiamine Mononitrate is vitamin B1... Riboflavin is vitamin B2... Niacin is vitamin B3... Folic Acid is vitamin B9... not so scary when you know what the words mean.

The only ingredient that troubles me is the propylene glycol. I see no reason to ingest it if you can help it. Yes it is commonly used in foods as an emulsifier and solvent, and I'm sure the quantity is low and it definitely won't hurt you to eat a box cake, but I would rather not when I can make a perfectly great cake without it or the gums. It's a personal preference kind of a thing. Me... I'd rather have a cake full of butter and eggs and sugar than one full of partially hydrogenated vegetable fats and gums, but not everyone feels the same or can get consistent results without the box as the base. To each their own...

The only from scratch cake that I know is something my mom made. She's whip the egg whites causing the cake to be very moist and fluffy.

If you're still looking for a fluffy recipe, go to YouTube and look up Warren Brown. Look for his yellow butter cake recipe. It has to be the best yellow cake I have ever had. Ever.