How important is the creaming process while making a cake?
A few of the chocolate cake recipes I read always start with the step - mix butter and sugar until creamy. I've tried a couple of times but failed to create anything near to creamy. But a few recipes completely eliminate the creaming process, wherein the wet ingredients are added directly to the dry mix. I'm looking for a cake which has a light and moist texture. What should I do? All my previous cakes were either too airy or grainy! On a side note, no matter how much time I mix, I'm not getting the sugar to completely dissolve in the butter. Should I be adding more butter?
Best Answer
The purpose mixing the butter and sugar until creamy is to distribute air through the batter that will help leaven the cake in the oven. Skipping this step can create a denser cake. You want to add the air into the batter before adding the flour in order to prevent over mixing, which creates gluten; causing a tougher texture.
Beating the eggs until foamy and folding them into the batter or adding the eggs to the butter/sugar and beating until fluffy will also create a lighter texture.
The sugar does not need to dissolve in the butter, but it should be evenly distributed. This site gives a good visual on how creamed butter & sugar should look.
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Quick Answer about "How important is the creaming process while making a cake?"
The creaming method is usually the initial and most important step in the recipe and involves beating fat/s and sugar together until the mixture is light in colour and his increased in volume. It is important for creating air, needed for leavening and thus helps to produce light and fluffy cakes.What is the purpose of creaming method for cake?
This cake mixing method is a classic, and the most common. The creaming method starts with beating the butter and sugar together until they're lightened in color and fluffy. Eggs are beaten in one at a time. The creaming method then adds the dry and liquid ingredients alternately to the butter mixture.Is creaming necessary?
Probably not. The difference between a dollop and a drizzle of cream is so obvious, no one thinks to question the necessity of it. Yet the value of creaming, a closely related process, is harder to grasp. See, unlike stirring, mixing, or beating, creaming isn't about combining ingredients\u2014it's about aerating them.What happens if you skip the creaming method?
The moisture inside the air pockets from the butter itself to eggs, milk, etc. turns to steam and the steam (aided by any leavening that might be called for in the recipe) helps the cookies to "puff". If you don't cream the butter and sugar you'll most likely have very poor results.What is the creaming method? ||Cake Creaming Method || Creaming Method Cake
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