Archive Issue - Monthly Tidbits Article
June 2008

Have Your Cake and Beat it Too!
by Jill Jackson

How is your summer season coming along? Has the weather affected your cool exterior? Around here, we are in the midst of developing a new and improved cupcake. No, it’s never too late to improve on an old favorite. After doing some very in depth research, we had come to the conclusion that we needed a bigger cupcake. Yes, the competition is fierce and our cupcakes, while packed with flavor, filled with moisture and unbeatable texture, were short on size and this was something we couldn’t turn our backs on. How were we going to make it bigger and still have the same great cupcake? The answer: we couldn’t. What am I leading to, you ask?

Good question, indeed. If you remember, last week we began our series on mixing methods of our dough and batter. Did you know that the mixing method used affects the overall texture and height of your cake? Well, it does, which leads me to my point. Because of this very important point of interest, we had to try several different methods in order to achieve the results we needed to bake a bigger, higher cupcake.

Imagine this: You’ve promised your best friend you’d make her daughter’s very first birthday cake. Proud to be nominated for this prestigious event, you go to the store and stock up on all of the ingredients necessary to create and conquer! Confident that the infant will not use it for a squeeze toy, you spare no expense, even buying decorations. (You are a true optimist!)

We began with the creaming method we discussed last week. Then we did the straight dump method. This is just as it sounds. You take all of the wet and dry ingredients, dump them directly into the bowl, and combine on medium to high speed in our electric mixer. That’s it. Probably the easiest method, but for our purpose, this did not make a moist cake. In fact, it was dry and crumbly, probably because there were no separate steps taken to address texture, one of the most important components of a fantastic cake.

We then attempted the Cake-Mixing two-step method. This blends your dry ingredients in with the butter or shortening (Hint: For best results, sift your dry ingredients together first and then add your butter. After mixing these items together, the wet ingredients are added incrementally (Hint: Always begin and end with your dry ingredients, as this ensures a more completely mixed batter and that will definitely affect your moisture.

It is important to scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl several times during this process to ensure you are getting all of the ingredients properly combined. Also, mix on low speed in order to best monitor your progress. (Hint: Be very precise on how long you mix, because this affects the amount of air beaten into your batter-- the more air, the lighter the cake, the more delicate the texture).

There are a variety of methods and outcomes. Make sure you know what you want and go from there. That way, you can stand the heat and still be in your kitchen.