What Are The 5 Main Cake-Making Methods?
You are about to get five main cake-making methods that will have you running to the kitchen. If you have been wanting to play with batter this is for you.
The 5 Main Cake making methods for batters are
- Creaming Method
- Reverse Creaming or Two-stage method
- Combination Method
- Chiffon Method
- Oil-based Method
Creaming Method
This method tends to use more egg yolks so depending on the type of cake you make it will tend to make the cake more yellow.
When making your batter you would start by creaming/ mixing butter and sugar until it’s fluffy.
The popular cake that people make with this method is yellow cake.
The common ingredients that are used with this method are sugar, unsalted butter, milk or buttermilk and cake flour.
Reverse Creaming or Two-Step Method
This ends up being a fluffier and lighter cake. for this type of batter, you wouldn’t start with the typical buttered sugar. you would start with dry ingredients and then add in the fats – softened.
There would be little gluten because you didn’t do any type of creaming method so when you add in the wet ingredients you would need to mix it longer so then so there’s some type of air being created. When mixing this batter you would be alternating between wet and dry ingredients.
A popular cake that’s usually made with this method is white cake. It is soft and this style of batter is perfect for layered cakes.
Combination Method
Another name for this method is a flour batter. When mixing the ingredients you would start by creaming the flour with shortening or a fat. Once you cream the flour you would start adding the eggs with sugar to the mixture. keep in mind that over-mixing this batter can cause the batter to lose a lot of volumes and create very large holes. This is a two-stage method and foaming (Chiffon) method combined.
Chiffon Method or Egg Foam Method
With this method as the first part of the recipe, sift the dry ingredients and make sure that all dry ingredients are mixed properly. if you want to do an extra step you can mix it in a mixer on low speed. then you would add the moist ingredients which can be oil or butter for fat.
For the second part of the recipe, you will whip the egg whites and sugar until it creates a foam. this stuff is used to make meringue. If that’s what you like.
You then would add the ingredients from the second stage back to the first batter.
This type of batter would make a chiffon cake or angel food cake. This type of cake is known to be very light and fluffy because of the egg foam portion.
Oil-Based Method.
This type of batter is very moist and denser. Oil is used instead of butter for this recipe. How you would start this batter is mixing the eggs and sugar together until it’s light and fluffy. From there, add the oil but very slowly and let it mix thoroughly. Once mixed then add the dry ingredients. The popular style of cake that is made using this method is carrot cake and very popular for cake box recipes.
You now know the five different types of cakes that you can make, and I’ve listed some tips to keep in mind while making each type. Now we’re going to discuss a batter that is made entirely by one method that doesn’t require multiple stages, along with possible issues encountered during this step.
Check out this post to see why a cake might not rise.
Alternating Between Wet And Dry Ingredients
Alternating between wet and dry ingredients helps but not having too much gluten develop. This means you start with a wet ingredient and then add a dry ingredient and then end with adding a wet ingredient. This allows you to control your batter as you’re mixing it. if too much gluten develops in your cake batter, you risk it becoming too stretchy or it can cause the cake to become chewy.
What Is The All In One Method Of Cake Making?
One-step method cake uses oil or a liquid fat like butter but needs to be melted and never in a solid form. Dry ingredients consist of cake flour, sugar, baking soda, or baking powder.
You would pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and this can be done by hand. This is one of the easiest methods where this type of cake allows you to mix your batter all in one step (known as the dumping method). Typical cakes using the one-step method is chocolate cake or carrot cake. Don’t whisk too much if you want a soft cake.
Should You Let Your Cake Cool Before Flipping It?
It’s best to let your cake cool while in the pan for a bit before flipping and allow it to form its structure and avoid the cake breaking apart. When taking out the cake from the oven it’s very soft and delicate. Once it cools down you should indeed flip it and put it on a rack to have it cool further so it doesn’t become soggy at the bottom of the pan.
Why Is My Cake Not Baking?
Your cake may not have baked because it may be missing ingredients such as baking powder or baking soda to help the cake rise. It can also be caused by improper heat circulation of the oven so it is suggested to have an oven thermometer to monitor the heat so it’s the correct temperature.
This can be caused by under-mixing or over-mixing. When you undermix, it can risk the batter dropping once it hits the oven resulting in not enough gluten structure being developed so when you try to bake it’s not going to expand or create a typical solid structure.
Over-mixing will cause the cake to be dense and very gooey and you would notice that it may be hard to bake and appear like it isn’t done yet. It’s a mess.
Why Are My Baked Goods Not Browning?
Heat issue, your oven is not high enough so the temperature may need adjusting. The positioning of the rack in your oven may be too low towards the bottom and needs to be closer to the top. If you are putting the rack towards the top you want to make sure that you supervise it very closely so it does not burn.
Also, this may be something you want to test instead of using eggwash you may want to try brushing the top of your dessert with butter where it makes sense.
Check out this post to learn more about how sugar plays a role in browning your cakes.