The ins and outs of making a cake.
Source of Recipe
Pam Anderson and Jane
The ins and outs of making a cake.
This was in this past weekend's USA Magazine. I was facinated by, and a minute ago, I found it on the web. Had to share it with all of you.
(Yes, from "scratch")
No wonder cake mixes dominate the market. Boxed cakes almost seem to thrive on adversity. Oven temperature's off? Don't worry; the cake will be fine. Baked it in an odd-size pan? No problem; the cake will rise triumphantly. Your 3-year-old helped mix the batter? Relax; the texture will be perfect. Just dump, mix, pour and bake.
Not only are cake mixes easy, convenient and indestructible, but many cake lovers prefer the soft, tender crumb of a boxed cake to the firm, substantial texture of those made from scratch.
Boxed cakes taste good; they certainly have their place. But take one bite and you know they're not homemade. I wanted a cake that had all the buttery, rich flavor of the cakes from my childhood, with the delicate yet substantial texture of one from a box. In addition, this new cake had to be as simple, streamlined and foolproof as possible. In my search for an easy homemade cake, here's what I learned:
A combination of all-purpose flour and cornstarch is one key to an ultra-tender cake. Check out the boxed-cake ingredients: Cornstarch usually is listed. (Oddly enough, I found cake flour produces a tender but less delicious cake. The process by which cake flour is processed leaves it acidic. In a simple butter cake, that unpleasant flavor comes through.)
Mix the butter with the flour instead of creaming it with the sugar, as most recipes ask you to do. Beating soft, room-temperature butter into the flour resulted in the tender cake I wanted. My attempts at using melted butter resulted in a greasy cake, and when I used cool, barely spreadable butter, the fat didn't coat the flour as well, resulting in a tougher cake.
Add the sugar at the end of the mixing process for a sweeter, more appealing cake. I made dozens of cakes, then asked visitors to taste them. Most cakes were missing only a few slices, but the ones made with the sugar added last were almost completely gone. My tasters were drawn to those cakes like a yellow jacket to a jar of jam.
And the last lesson in producing a melt-in-your-mouth cake: Don't overbeat the batter.
Next time you decide to make a cake, look around your kitchen: The ingredients are so basic, you might not have to go to the store. And the technique is simple, too: Beat soft butter into the dry ingredients. Beat in eggs mixed with milk and vanilla. Beat in sugar. Bake.
How easy is that?
Contributing Editor Pam Anderson is the author of "CookSmart" (Houghton Mifflin, $28).
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