stuck even after recipes often changed the fat to vegetable shortening or oil. But butter still gives the

best-flavored cake. Chemical leaveners (baking powder, baking soda or both) leaven butter cakes

but leavening may get additional help from creamed butter and beaten egg whites.

You can prepare butter cakes four different ways:

1. In the conventional method you cream the fat with the sugar (that whips the most air into

the emulsion) to promote high volume and a light, fine-grained texture. You add the liquid

ingredients to the fat-sugar emulsion in a slow stream during mixing, then gently fold in the dry

ingredints. The conventional method produces the best cake, but it also take the most effort.

2. The muffin method is fast but results in a cake with lower volume and denser texture,

because you don't whip air into the fat—it is still moist but less tender. In this method you combine

the liquid ingredients, including liquid fat (melted butter or oil) in one bowl and the dry ingredients

in another, then you mix the two to form the batter.

. The pastry method is also fast. You mix solid fat (vegetable shortening or butter) into the

flour just like if you were making a pie dough, then you add the rest of the ingredients. Again,

volume is low because there is no mixed-in air and the cake is denser, but the minimal mixing keeps

the gluten from developing much. Most commercial cake mixes use this method. Instead of solid fat

they use dehydrated hydrogenated vegetable shortening plus some oil. These mixes also use

emulsifiers and foaming agents that cause air to incorporate and retain during mixing to give a

lighter texture and more volume. Home bakers not using those chemicals can never achieve such

texture and volume with the pastry method.

4. A compromise that offers both quick preparation and high volume is the combination

method. Combine liquid fat, egg yolks and dry ingredients. Beat the egg whites and fold them into

the mix. This is reasonably fast and produces cakes with a good volume and fine texture.

Sponge cakes

As their name suggests, members of the sponge cake family are light as sponge, and

sometimes just as dry—there is no fat to lubricate the bites—these cakes rely on egg whites to

leaven the batter. Sponge, angel, chiffon and the French génoise cakes are included in this category.

They serve as foundation and become cakes only with sauces, fillings or frosting. They are like

baked potatoes—just OK by themselves but far better when you add something rich on top. What is

the difference between them?

Sponge cake is a simple basic cake in which you fold separated whipped egg whites into the

the ingredients, including the yolks. The French génoise cake is similar except for two things: you

don't separate the eggs and you warm the combined whole eggs and sugar to about 100°F (40°C)

while beating continuously. The warming part is not essential—you can make a génoise cake

without heating but the warming produces a better result.

Angel food cake is a sponge cake without egg yolk. It is even drier than sponge cake because

at least yolks add some fat and richness. Angel food cake is too dry to eat by itself.

Chiffon cake is somewhere between a butter cake and a sponge cake. It relies on egg white

for leavening, so it is closer to a sponge cake, but it has oil in the batter for moistness. Naturally

bland, you can jazz it up with spices in the batter or a tasty frosting you add after baking.

Toasted Hazelnut Torte

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