To really put butter cake through its paces, I made a list of all the factors that could affect the outcome of a sponge, from mixing method to level of creaming and more. We’ll go through those in detail, but here are the controls:

Is there any cake more ubiquitous than the victoria sponge? Before I could commit to preparing an entire cake, my earliest memories of baking were fairy cakes. I would cream together that 90s margarine (shout out to my fellow flora kids) and caster sugar with a wooden spoon. Inevitably I would get tired after 5 seconds and pass the bowl to my nanny Carole, who would graciously finish the job. Spooning the mixture into cases and watching them rise in the oven was always an unparalleled pleasure - it still is. There are those cake bakers who assemble cake-desserts with already-made store-bought cakes, layering it with fruit and whipped cream or layering it in a glass bowl with fruit sauce and custard. Liquid fat, whether in the form of melted butter or oil, resulted in a higher rise. This deviated from my expectation. I have struggled to find any resources on this. Still, I wonder if it is to do with the mobile liquid fat keeping the hardening gluten network more elastic and flexible for longer, allowing for more significant rises. The next step is to set up web hosting. This is the server where your blog will live. There are a variety of services available, and it’s important to select a reliable provider that meets your needs – Probably Not. Step 4: Design Your Blog Cream the soft butter with salt and sugar for 2 minutes on medium speed using a kitchen aid. This is enough for the butter and sugar to aerate slightly and become a little paler, but not so much that it is whipped. It is better to err on the side of caution.Early cakes in England were also essentially bread: the most obvious differences between a "cake" and "bread" were the round, flat shape of the cakes and the cooking method, which turned cakes over once while cooking, while bread was left upright throughout the baking process. [5]

And, some cake bakers are a hybrid of all types – they bake from scratch, bake with mixes and assemble already-made cakes for their family and guests! The term "cake" has a long history. The word itself is of Viking origin, from the Old Norse word "kaka". [2] I am a professional pastry chef, trained at the world-renowned Le Cordon Bleu in London. I have years of experience working as a pastry chef in hotels and restaurants in Tel-Aviv and London. At my latest position I was head pastry chef in a fine dining restaurant in London, overseeing the entire pastry department, producing desserts daily as well as creating the dessert menu for every season. The Greeks invented beer as a leavener, frying fritters in olive oil, and cheesecakes using goat's milk. [4] In ancient Rome, the basic bread dough was sometimes enriched with butter, eggs, and honey, which produced a sweet and cake-like baked good. [5] The Latin poet Ovid refers to his and his brother's birthday party and cake in his first book of exile, Tristia. [6]The bake-from-scratch cake lovers wouldn’t dare make anything from a mix because it means they “cheated” and gave way to commercialism; they simply do not like the chemical taste from mixes and feel as though the whole experience and art of baking a cake is lost when using a mix. Cakes may be classified according to the occasion for which they are intended. For example, wedding cakes, birthday cakes, cakes for first communion, Christmas cakes, Halloween cakes, and Passover plava (a type of sponge cake sometimes made with matzo meal) are all identified primarily according to the celebration they are intended to accompany. The cutting of a wedding cake constitutes a social ceremony in some cultures. The Ancient Roman marriage ritual of confarreatio originated in the sharing of a cake. Unless testing an alternative method, the standard mixing method was creaming butter and sugar, then adding eggs, followed by the dries.