Scratch Bakers Please Help
Decorating By sweettreat101 Updated 24 Jul 2012 , 4:38pm by FromScratchSF
I found a recipe for a white cake mix to replace the 18.25 BC mixes but it says to use 1/2 shortening. Can you use oil instead? Won't the shortening make the cake more dense? Thank you.
I found a recipe for a white cake mix to replace the 18.25 BC mixes but it says to use 1/2 shortening. Can you use oil instead? Won't the shortening make the cake more dense? Thank you.
Too simple but if the recipe involves the creaming of the shortening then it will be the opposite. Creaming incorporates air into the shortening which depending on ingredients tend to produce a lighter and more tender crumb.
You cannot compare the results of a mixes which are oil based to scratch recipes. It is the chemical additives and not the oil that is producing the fluffier texture of box cakes. That said given the interaction of ingredients and mixing methods it is too simple to say in any particular recipe whether shortening will produce a denser cake than oil.
This recipe.
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or 2 3/4 cups cake flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup powdered milk or 1/2 cup dry buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Directions
Combine the ingredients. Store in a sealed, labeled container or baggie with the directions to make the cake. (This mix will fit in a quart-size baggie, just barely.) If you want to double, triple, or more the mix to make in bulk and keep it all in one big container, stir the mix well and measure out 5 cups of mix each time you make a cake (or a bit more if you used cake flour).
To replace in recipes calling for a store-bought white cake mix: Use in any recipe calling for a white cake mix as a base (add 1 teaspoon vanilla to the recipe along with the cake mix as the recipe will assume powdered vanilla flavoring was included in the store-bought mix).
Or to make a basic white cake using your homemade mix, use the following instructions : 1 recipe Homemade White Cake Mix + 1 1/4 cups water + 1/2 cup shortening + 4 egg whites + 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Combine all the ingredients. Beat to mix on low, then beat on high for two minutes. Pour into greased, floured cake pans. Bake at 350-degrees.
Baking Time : 8″ or 9″ cake rounds 20-25 minutes / 13 x 9 pan 35-40 minutes / cupcakes 12-15 minutes / tube/bundt pan 45-50 minutes.
To make this mix without using powdered milk: Delete the dried milk from the mix ingredients. When preparing the cake, replace the 1 1/4 cups water with 1 1/3 cups milk or buttermilk. Ive also used coconut milk with this recipe. You can use any kind of milk you want.
Generally speaking, you can't sub a liquid fat for a solid fat. Liquid doesn't hold air, first, but liquid fat will always be liquid - it will never solidify like butter or shortening. I have tried to sub liquid oil for solid fat in a hi-ratio cake and I got a spongy, wet, oily mess.
The exception is if you are doing a chiffon cake, which calls for liquid oil and no solid fat. But it relies on meringue to hold air and cream of tartar to strengthen the proteins to keep the structure. The ratios are different as is the mixing method of a hi-ratio cake.
Shortening is used in white hi-ratio cakes for a few reasons - shortening is white, butter is yellow. If you want a white-white cake, you use shortening. Shortening also has natural and chemical emulsifiers that help bring your batter together, making for a more perfect crumb. Again, generally speaking, shortening actually lightens cake, not makes it more dense, much like it lightens pie dough, cookies and pastry.
You can sub out shortening for butter easily if you don't want to use shortening.
Good luck!
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