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'Creaming' butter and sugar

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'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby Binky » Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:20 pm

All our old cake recipes start by creaming butter and sugar, then adding eggs. OH says that's because they pre-date mixers/food processors becoming commonly used in domestic kitchens.

There's no reason why you can't dollop all the ingredients in together and in fact Mary Berry does this with her 'easy' banana cake, lemon drizzle cake and chocolate cake recipes.

Is he right, and we can ignore the old fashioned instructions or is there a reason for doing things the traditional way?

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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Apr 12, 2021 12:52 pm

Hmm - I think it does depend a bit on the recipe

I have always stuck with the creaming method for simple Victoria sponges, I have tried the all in one method with a good hand mixer as I've never had a stand mixer, and personally I get a better result the old fashioned way, especially as I use butter I think not a soft baking fat,

If I got a stand mixer, I'd possibly try all in one again

But as a general principle I suspect your husband is right and it made a lot more difference using a wooden spoon and muscles

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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby Suelle » Mon Apr 12, 2021 1:04 pm

I think your OH is right - that part of cake making pre-dates any type of mixer other than a wooden spoon, and probably pre-dates caster sugar too.

As long as your butter is very soft, but not molten, and you are using caster sugar, you can get just as good results using the all-in-one method for a straightforward sponge cake recipe.

Some all-in-one recipes add a little extra baking powder, even with SR flour, but I don't find it necessary.

I don't think it's quite as straightforward with heavier cake recipes, such as fruitcakes and plain cakes with Madeira cake proportions (more flour than butter and sugar). There, you need the soft mix of butter and sugar, and then eggs added, to be able to incorporate all the flour and other ingredients. Recipes for these types of cakes generally beat fast for the first stages, then reduce speed to incorporate all the flour (or even use a spoon). All-in-one may work, but could be a struggle for a mixer, initially.

Also, if you come across a recipe with non-standard instructions (such as beating butter and flour together) then there's usually a reason for it, and you need to follow instructions. :)
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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby jeral » Mon Apr 12, 2021 2:47 pm

Working backwards, all in one doesn't work for hand mixing as the fat couldn't be creamed properly if flour and egg was dumped in too so the aeration would be minimal, as well as being both physically difficult trying to blend it all plus it would overwork the gluten making it tough given the time it'd take.

I respect the idea of getting a feel for the consistency when mixing by hand, although that needs experience from regular baking methinks.

I've watched Anna Olson do all in one's but also she still makes some cakes by following the steps in order, i.e. beating fat & sugar in mixer, then adding egg on a slower speed and ditto flour later on slower speed. Perhaps it takes longer but might be worth it.

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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby Binky » Mon Apr 12, 2021 3:03 pm

My post wasn't too clear and I apologise for that. By all-in-one, I should have said that ingredients were properly creamed (with the mixer/processor) and the eggs and flour added after that. I found this video which shows much better than I have explained


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_kp6LsH-rmk

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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby Suelle » Mon Apr 12, 2021 3:44 pm

Binky wrote:My post wasn't too clear and I apologise for that. By all-in-one, I should have said that ingredients were properly creamed (with the mixer/processor) and the eggs and flour added after that. I found this video which shows much better than I have explained


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_kp6LsH-rmk


You've confused me even more now - the video shows a classic all-in-one - eggs, butter, sugar and flour all in together. The only thing MB did differently was mix the cocoa to a paste first, then added everything else.

I reiterate what I said earlier - a complete all-in-one works very well for sponge cakes, but it does need an electric mixer to work well - you just can't beat hard enough by hand to aerate the batter. There is no need to cream the butter and sugar separately.
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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby ZeroCook » Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:22 pm

.

I've found that most hand mixing can be done with electric beaters but the mixing order of ingredients can be as important as the mixing itself. Mixing order can also have a noticeable effect on results and texture. Not saying all in one is bad but it just doesn't work for everything the same way.

.

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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby Binky » Mon Apr 12, 2021 9:57 pm

I suppose I'm harking back to my days of Domestic Science lessons when we were taught basic cookery. Creaming was always done with a wooden spoon and one of those Mason Cash bowls. There was no such thing as the all in one method (or at least was not taught by the nuns who ran the school). My mother didn't own a cookery book and had no interest in baking cakes, so in my mind whenever I read a recipe that calls for the creaming method, I always think of a wooden spoon and never a food mixer.

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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby Earthmaiden » Mon Apr 12, 2021 10:33 pm

Reading this it now makes total sense that the 'all in one' method came in when people started using electric beaters more. Am I the only one who still rarely uses them? I have always found the creaming method makes a lighter cake even though I often do all in one. It all makes sense now!

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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby Suffs » Tue Apr 13, 2021 12:21 pm

That differs from my memory which is that the 'all in one' method arrived very soon after the appearance of Stork soft margarines in the 70s ...

https://www.bakewithstork.com/made-for- ... since-1920


The first patent for an electric handheld mixer wasn't granted until 1961, and that was in the US, so possibly handheld mixers didn't become commonly available in the UK until the the 70s ........ I married in 1970 and I certainly didn't have one for the first few years of married life, so whether the mixer or the soft margarine came first may be a 'chicken or egg' type question ;)

EDITED to correct link : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixer_(appliance). Scroll down to ‘Variants - hand mixer’.
Last edited by Suffs on Wed Apr 14, 2021 2:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby scullion » Tue Apr 13, 2021 1:07 pm

my stash of magazine cut-outs from the seventies includes rather a lot of stork's 'all-in-one' cake recipes. my mother upgraded from a hand held 'pifco' to a kenwood chef in the early seventies.
i have a cheap, dying hand mixer that can only, really, cope with beating eggs and that on the fastest setting - so no, you're not alone, earthmaiden!
i would like to upgrade to a kenwood chef too, now, and regret declining it when the house was cleared. (but i do have a glass rabbit jelly mould so it isn't all bad!).

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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby jeral » Tue Apr 13, 2021 1:51 pm

Interesting... I don't remember wooden spoon all-in-one's from way back when, but I do recall the melted butter/marg all in one versions back then - unless I'm re-writing history(?).

What I didn't like about wooden spoon and granulated sugar was that the grittiness worked its way up the handle and darn near took the skin off my fingers, sob. A necessary evil if you wanted a light fluffy result. (Kitchen paper wrap-around these days).

As a kid, I recall being transported to another world when a friend's mum presented a pink bunny and green grass on a charger on the lighted corner drinks bar counter at a birthday party 8-) Probably either So Yesterday or just plain naff now :lol:

Going back to the question, well sort of re mechanising, I wonder if it's "A good thing" to mix Yorks puds with in a blender or with electric whisk as puds that rise too much (or with too much egg riser) sink almost immediately like souffles do. Personal preference I suppose.

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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby Pampy » Tue Apr 13, 2021 4:32 pm

The Kenwood Chefette was brought out in 1959 - I remember my Mum had one when I was quite young.

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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Apr 13, 2021 4:58 pm

My mum had a chefettette in the early 60s but I don’t think the recipe book recommended all in one, as others have said my memory is that was a separate thing

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Re: 'Creaming' butter and sugar

Postby Binky » Tue Apr 13, 2021 9:23 pm

OH clearly remembers helping his mum make cakes when he was at junior school. His last year was 1965 before he left for senior school, never to help in the kitchen again. She had a Chefette so they were definitely around in the mid-sixties. His auntie had a Kenwood Chef which was considered the height of kitchen luxury at that time.

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