Our contributor, Summer Stone of Cake Paper Party, is back today with a new baking science experiment. Join Summer as she challenges a traditional baking concept and shares her results.
Classic cake making methods suggest that the first step in making a butter cake involves creaming together butter and sugar. Traditionally this was done with a wooden spoon and brute strength and required the baker to endure arduous sessions of beating. With today’s electric mixers, I wanted take a look at how much mixing was enough to achieve sufficient creaming and what would happen if you creamed too far.
I started with a classic vanilla cake recipe and mixed the butter and sugar for either 1 minute on low, 3 minutes on medium-high or 6 minutes on medium-high. The differences in the butter-sugar combo were stark.
The low-mixed combo was still very yellow in color and the sugar granules were easily detectable in this just-combined mixture.
The butter mixture that was mixed for 3 minutes on medium-high was much lighter in color, less dense and the sugar granules appeared smaller or less noticeable.
The combination mixed for 6 minutes on medium-high was a bit denser than the 3 minute mixing and the mixture was softer and smoother than the others.
To examine why these differences occur let’s take a look at what happens in the creaming process.
- Butter and sugar are combined which aids in the distribution of these two ingredients.
- Air is driven into the butter by the beaters and the jagged shape of the sugar crystals helps to hold small air pockets as they are forced into the butter.
- As air is incorporated into the butter-sugar combo the light diffracting properties are altered and the mixture appears lighter in color.
- Friction from the mixing causes the butter to soften.
- Sugar crystals begin to dissolve in the liquid in the butter making them seem less pronounced.
Despite marked differences in the appearance of the creamed butter-sugar combination, the differences in the baked cakes were more difficult spot. When the three cakes were lined up side by side, it was not easy to detect alterations in structure or texture. All three cakes appeared light and fluffy with an open crumb. Only mouthfeel gave away their subtle differences.
The one-minute cake had a slightly more coarse texture than the other two cakes and baked slightly domed.
The three-minute cake had a softer, tenderer texture than the one-minute cake and baked perfectly flat.
The six-minute cake was slightly coarser and just a bit cottony when compared to the three minute cake.
So, it appears that you can under or over cream you butter and sugar if you are not careful. If you under mix, the sugar granules stay coarse and not enough fine air particles are incorporated into the cake batter to make it light and fluffy. When the sugar and butter are properly creamed the mixture becomes lighter and less dense. These fine air particles expand and gently leaven the cake. The “softened” sugar also distributes better throughout the batter for a more tender cake. When the butter and sugar are over mixed the butter becomes excessively soft and the less capable of holding air pockets. The sugar also starts to dissolve making the mixture more liquid and less able to hold onto fine air cells. The resultant cake becomes coarser as the larger and less numerous air pockets converge.
There you have it! Our grandmothers may have had to beat their butter and sugar for upwards of 30 minutes but a mere 3 minutes in a modern day mixer is all you need for a lovely cake!
Happy baking!
Hi, thanks for this. Well, I usually two or three times my cake and also cookie recipes. What kind of difference will this make with so much more of the two ingredients. Thank you
I DO THE MORE BEATING AND MY CAKES BECOMES HEAVY AND TIGHT SO, HOW MUCH EXACT TIME IS NEEDED TO BEAT THE EGGS AND CAKE MIXED BATTER TOO
Thanks For Dis Info, It’s An Eye Opener For Me Cos I Feel D More U Cream d butter n sugar, D more d cake rises n d better Ur cake texture. obviously i was wrong. am expecting more posts from u.
Thanks for the 3 mins rule for creaming the butter and sugar. My question is after I cream the butter and sugar and add the remaining ingredients how long do I mixing the batter?
please, I use a small hand mixer, how long do I need to cream my butter and sugar .
Thanks
Thanks, is this true for making pound cakes
For a quick rise, you can also bake cupcakes at 400 degrees for 5 minutes and then turn the oven back to 350 degrees for the remainder of the baking time.
Wow! This was really interesting. I have been wondering how long butter and sugar should be creamed. I read all sorts of stuff, so I had no idea. Now I know for sure.
I read one place that the sugar crystals should not be of the fine sort, but it was kinda unclear what they ment. Then I read another place that it should be as fine as possible to dissolve in the butter. I believed that, so yesterday I took my sugar and crushed it in the blender. Now I see you write the opposite, and I totally believe what you write.
I read one place it should be cane sugar. That is not possible to find here. Actually, we don’t have other things than extra fine sugar granules. I found a package from another brand, that did not state the particle size. But it was the same manufacturer. I could not really tell if it was bigger than the superfine. I did not examine too much either, but. I live in Norway, and we have really bad selections in grocery store, that’s why.
Yes, I believed the sugar crystals should be as fine as possible, because the sugar manufacturer write on the package that it is extra good for all sorts of cakes. So I thought they probably knew better than what I read all over the internet. But they for sure don’t.