So, we’ve talked about the basic ingredients of a cake, but the way you mix up the ingredients is the key to baking a light, tender and delicious cake. There are at least five different methods for mixing the cake, but I’m going to focus on two. The first is the creaming method and it is the method that you see the most often in recipe instructions. The second is the dissolved sugar method, which is not commonly seen, but is less finicky than the creaming method.
Creaming Method
So here are the steps to the creaming method. Remember the basic ingredients in the cake are flour, sugar, fat, eggs and liquids.
1. Cream the fat.
2. Cream the fat and sugar.
3. Cream the fat, sugar, and eggs.
4. Add the flour and liquids, starting with the flour.
Many recipes tell you to cream butter and sugar, but few tell you exactly what that means. Yet, properly creaming the fat and creaming the fat and sugar are essential to the success of this cake mixing method. First off, “creaming” is simply another way of saying “whipping air into”. When you cream butter, you whip air into it. The creaming method is typically used when the recipe calls for solid fats, such as butter and shortening. After all, it’s impossible to whip air into oil.
To cream butter you need to start off with butter that it approximately 65 degrees F. Many recipes will tell you that the butter should be room temperature. However, unless you try not to use your furnace in the winter, your room temperature is probably too warm. Melted butter cannot hold air bubbles, and butter melts somewhere between 67 and 68 degrees.
How do you know if your butter is 65 degrees? The easiest way is to insert a candy/frying thermometer into the stick of butter and take it’s temperature. I tried this with a stick of butter that I’d just taken from the refrigerator and the temperature was 45 degrees. An hour later the temperature was 62 degrees. The temperature of your home and your fridge will both affect the amount of time it takes the butter to warm up.
Mixing the butter will raise its temperature, so it is good to use a chilled mixing bowl and chilled beaters. While you are creaming the butter, periodically touch the bowl with your hand to make sure it’s still cool to the touch. If it’s not, then put the bowl into the freezer for 5 minutes before continuing the creaming process.
To cream butter or shortening, place it in a mixing bowl and mix it with either a hand or stand mixer set on medium speed. The color of the butter will lighten as the air is mixed in. Once the color has lightened, then you can add the sugar and continue to mix at medium speed. The creaming process may take anywhere from 5 – 10 minutes; shorter if you use a stand mixer, longer if you use a hand mixer. I like to cream the butter and sugar together until is is very difficult to feel the sugar when you taste the creamed mixture.
After creaming the butter and sugar, the eggs should be added in. The eggs should be at room temperature; you can place un-cracked eggs in a bowl of warm water to quickly bring them to room temperature. Add the eggs one at a time, and stop mixing immediately after they have been incorporated into the batter. Too much mixing at this stage can decrease the volume of your cake.
Now it’s time to add the flour and liquids. You are supposed to add the flour first, so that most of the flour is added to the batter before the liquids. Why is this important? Well, when you’re baking with wheat flour it’s important because it helps prevent gluten from forming and creating a tough cake. The order of adding the flour and liquids may not be at all important when working with gluten free flours. However, I hate to say that there’s absolutely no impact since I haven’t tested it myself and I am no expert on the proteins that are in gluten free flours.
So, to sum this up. You can use the creaming method when the fat in the cake recipe is butter or shortening. Be sure to cream the butter and the butter and sugar long enough. But, if you’re using butter be sure to not let it get to warm.
Dissolved Sugar Method
Until I started doing research on cake baking, I didn’t realize that there was any cake mixing method other than the creaming method. All of my knowledge of the dissolved sugar method is from the book Bakewise by Corriher, so if you’d like some additional reading, that’s where you should go.
So, why should you consider using this method? Corriher states that compared to the creaming method this method is less likely to fail; there are simply less things that you can do wrong. I think that is important when you’re gluten free. If you’re making a gluten free cake for a special occasion, you can’t just run out to a bakery shop for a replacement if youre cake is a flop. I also hate to waste gluten free flours on anything that is less than supremely amazing, so no heavy, dry, dense cakes for me please.
Here are the basic steps to the dissolved sugar method.
1. Dissolve the sugar into water (or other liquid in the recipe)
2. Blend the dry ingredients and fat into the sugar mixture
4. Add the remaining liquid, flavoring, and eggs
Unlike the creaming method, the dissolved sugar method can be used with any type of fat, including oil. This is a plus for those of you whose choice of fats may be limited due to specific dietary requirements. This method is also very easy. You don’t have to worry about the temperature of the ingredients or whether you’ve creamed the butter and sugar long enough.
If you’ve been baking cakes using the creaming method for years, then this method will take some getting used to. The creaming method is second nature to me and when I tested this method it felt strange to mix the ingredients in a new order. However, I’m sure that I’ll adjust once I memorize the order of the steps and make a few cakes.
The first step in this method is to heat the liquid of the recipe, usually water, to a simmer and then add it to the sugar. The amount of water used should weigh about half of the weight of the sugar. One cup of granulated sugar weighs approximately 7 oz, so use 3.5 fl. oz of water for each cup of sugar. Any additional water called for in the recipe will be added at the end.
After dissolving the sugar, the flour and fats are added to the sugar mixture. Be sure to mix your flours and leavening together before adding them in. Mix the flour and sugar mixture together for 5 minutes at medium speed.
Finally, add any remaining liquids, the flavorings, and the eggs. You can hand mix these ingredients in, or beat them in with a mixer set on low. You should not have to beat the batter for more than 1 minute to do this.
That’s pretty simple, right? Dissolve the sugar, add the flour and fats, then add everything else. You can do this!
Back to Cooking Class: A Beginning Class in Gluten Free Cakes.