Ingredients:
1800g butter (or 1000g margarine and 800g butter) at room temperature
1200g castor sugar
1800g flour
milk powder
36 eggs
Note: butter, flour and eggs are of the same weight, while sugar is 70% of the weight
Method:
1. To
begin, place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and start beating
these two ingredients on low speed.
Note: The creaming of the
butter and sugar produces air bubbles in the fat created by the rubbing
of the sugar crystals against the fat. These holes will
get larger and multiply as you continue beating. Starting on
low speed and then gradually increasing the speed allows the air bubbles
to form and strengthen. Starting at too high a speed could
damage or break the fragile air bubbles which will cause the finished
cake to be heavy with a compact texture. The goal is to have
maximum aeration, that is, lots of air bubbles in the fat. A well
aerated batter means a cake with good volume and a soft crumb.
Beating time can range anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes so be sure to
follow your recipe.
Butter and sugar have
different jobs in cake making. Butter provides flavor, tenderizes
the batter and provides volume. Sugar, on the other hand, helps to
tenderize the batter (slows down the gluten development in the flour)
but also sweetens the batter, moistens the batter which helps keep the
cake fresh, and helps with browning.
2. At
the point where the butter and sugar mixture is light and fluffy, room
temperature eggs are added.
Note: (The use of cold eggs will reduce the
volume of your finished cake.) You may have noticed that
there may be curdling of the batter at this stage. This is caused by the addition of more liquid (eggs) than the batter can
handle at one time. Once the flour has been added it will smooth
out the batter so don't worry. One solution is to add the eggs
to the batter more slowly as opposed to one egg at a time as most
recipes state. Lightly beating each egg first and then slowly
adding the egg down the side of the bowl as the mixer is running will help. If you see
curdling, stop adding the egg and beat the batter a little to smooth it
out before continuing the addition of more egg.
Eggs play a major role in cake making. Not only do they add needed
aeration to the batter, they also provide structure to the cake, help to
bind the ingredients together, keep the cake moist, add flavor, and
tenderness.
3. Once the eggs have been combined and you have a smooth batter,
flavorings, such as extracts are added. The flour is then
sifted
with a leavening agent (baking powder/baking soda) and salt. This
is done not only to aerate the flour and remove any lumps, but to evenly
distribute the leavening agent and salt throughout the flour. If the
leavening agent is not evenly distributed throughout the cake batter,
holes in the baked cake can occur.
Baking powder's role is to enlarge the
bubbles created in the fat during the creaming of the fat and sugar.
4. The
flour mixture and room temperature liquid
(milk, water, etc.) are added alternately, beginning and ending with the
flour mixture to ensure a smooth and light batter. It is very
important not to overmix the batter at this point. Over mixing
will develop too much gluten in the flour and the result will be a tough
cake. Mix only to incorporate the ingredients. The first
addition of flour will be fully coated with the fat and does not form
gluten, so it is a good idea to add the largest amount of flour in the
first addition. When you add the liquid any uncoated flour will
combine with the liquid and form gluten. Continue adding the flour
and liquid alternately, making sure you mix on low speed just until
blended. This will enable enough gluten to develop to provide
structure but not enough to make a heavy and compact cake.
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