A pile of goo! I have a scale purchased and I am trying to stick with recipes that have grams listed so I know what I’m getting. Thank you for the conversions.
My question to you would be on average after you have creamed your liquid ingredients together and start to add in the dry ingredients do you have an amount of time you mix for? I folded in the dry last time to the point of just mixed but not more than 1-2 minutes if I had to put a time on it, but would using my whisk attachment on my mixer be better?
I have only made a few cakes from total scratch so I am learning, but since I am trying to take my talent into a occasional side business I need to pastry know it all to guide me!
Also when you make buttercream if it’s to runny how to you get that firm fluffy texture without it being overly sweet?
No use a paddle attachment. And the reason you use the paddle attachment is creaming butter and sugar is not about mixing the sugar into the butter. It’s more than that.
The process of creaming butter and sugar is actually for leavening. The sugar crystals cuts through the butter and create cuts in the butter. A whisk won’t push the sugar crystals through the butter.
When the chemical leavening (baking powder and/or baking soda) activates, the air bubbles will get trapped in the cuts in the butter. The butter needs to be a certain temperature in order to expand those air pockets.
As the butter expands, it makes the batter rise. when the butter reaches a certain temperature it will melt. But by then, the flour will have reached a certain temperature to trigger starch gelatinization. So the structure will hold.
But the starting temperature of your butter before you begin to cream is key. Beating the butter causes friction. Friction causes heat. So your butter should be 65°F or colder. See the link below on the correct way to cream butter and sugar. This applies to cake as well as cookies.
You need to recognize how butter changes when you cream it.
The quality of your butter is also very important. Not all butter is the same. Store brand and regular American butter has less butter fat, about 80%. European style butters have 83% –86%. And it makes a huge difference in the quality of your cake and cookies.
If you live in the US, the best prices for Plugra, An American made butter, but European style with 83% butterfat is Walmart. It costs about the same as Land’OLakes, but is far better. Walmart also has the best prices from Kerrygold. The only American butter I will ever use is LandOLakes. And that is very rare and the only thing I’ll ever use it in is a cookie dough.
https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/12/cookie-science-creaming-butter-sugar.html
Where I differ from Stella Parks:
- I never use anodized aluminum ever!! It’s conducts too much heat. It creates a brown crust and dries out the cake. I use uncoated metal. My pan of choice is Chicago Metallic Commercial II uncoated
- I use cloth baking strips my cake pans. This insulates the cake from excessive heat. The cake bake evenly so it is level. No dry crust develops
- I bake at 325°F (170°C). 350°F is just too hot for cake. It is with rare exception that I ever bake at 350°F. The only cakes I Baking the temperature are really heavy dense cakes like carrot cake.
I’ve never used this recipe so I cannot vouch for it. I link it here just so that you can see what the correct mixing process for creaming butter and sugar, using the CORRECT temperature of butter.
Note the use of paddle attachment.
After you have creamed the butter and sugar it doesn’t matter when you start adding the flour.
There is no gluten in flour. Flour only contains two proteins: glutenin and gliadin. They require a water molecule to bind and form gluten.
So the butter and sugar in the bowl, the liquids in a separate bowl are all just sitting there; nothing will happen until the flour is mixed in. Once the flour is added the glutenin and gliadin will bind with water molecules in the butter and gluten will develop. That’s when you have to become more aware of time and mixing.
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2017/05/classic-vanilla-butter-cake-recipe.html