All Cakes Considered - Melissa Gray [6]
If you’re using a traditional tube pan that’s flat on the bottom, you can line the bottom with parchment paper. You just put the pan, bottom down, on the paper, trace the outside, then trace that hole on the inside, remove the pan, and cut out the large donut you just made. Place it in the bottom of the pan.
Traditionally, you’d now take the wax paper that was once wrapped around your butter and grease the inside of your pan, including the parchment liner, and then sprinkle flour all over the bottom and sides. But sometimes, tradition needs to go away. Pam makes this great baking spray that includes flour. There’s also another brand called Baker’s Joy. I love this stuff. I’m tempted to use it as deodorant and hair spray, but it’s not really designed for that. Spray your tube pan (or Bundt pan, if you’re using that instead), including the center column.
Four
“Cream Butter and Sugar.”
Creaming is the process of dissolving the sugar into the fat. Your goal is to have a creamy-looking mixture. That’s why it’s called creaming. D’oh!
Your first impulse might be to unwrap and dump 2 cold, hard sticks of unsalted butter into the mixer, followed by 3 heaping cups of granulated sugar. Your second impulse would be to crank up the mixer and stand back. Your third impulse would be to sing “Babaloo”, because that’s the weird rhythm you’re going to hear as the 2 cold, hard sticks of butter tumble around the mixer on high speed over 3 heaping cups of granulated sugar.
I like Desi Arnaz, but those impulses are all wrong. A full-blown baking NO NO NO. You’ll end up with big chunks of sugar-covered butter. It will not be creamed. You will have failed. Resist those impulses (except for singing “Babaloo”, I say go for that one) and do this instead (it’s a secret most recipes don’t spell out for you):
At least 1 hour BEFORE you’re ready to begin baking, set out your butter and eggs. You want them at room temperature, because that’s going to make creaming sooooo much easier. Ideally, your butter should be soft enough so that you can make an indentation in the stick by pressing on it gently with your finger.
Cut your room-temperature butter into tablespoonsized pats and put these pats in the mixing bowl. Start your engine and mix for 1 or 2 minutes at medium speed until the butter is smooth and no longer resembles a pile of solid yellow squares.
next Step: you’re going to measure out your sugar. Not heapin’ helpings, either—you’re going to use the dip, scoop, and level method: Dip your cup into your bag or container, scoop it up, then, holding the cup above said bag or container, run a knife, or your finger, over the top of the cup to level it off.
Using this method, measure out 3 cups of sugar and put them aside in a prep bowl. Working from your prep bowl, measure ½ cup of sugar, add it to the butter, and beat for 1 minute on medium speed. Continue adding the sugar this way until all 3 cups are thoroughly creamed (that’s 6 half cups and 6 minutes of beating).
Ooooooh, drives you crazy, doesn’t it, the time this takes? Remember: the goal here is to dissolve the sugar into the fat. Room temperature and time are your BFFs (that’s “best friends forever” for those of you who don’t text).
Five
“Add Eggs.”
That means one at a time, mixing to incorporate the egg into the batter before adding the next one. And about those eggs: there will come a time when you’ve cracked a henhouse full and you’ve mastered the crack-’em-on-the-side-of-the-mixing-bowl-with-the-mixer-still-running maneuver, but until you