You ask a great question, Maharja. We'll try to break it down for you in a way that's both useful and easy to understand.

1.) Creaming method Perhaps the most common method for making cakes, it makes a light, fluffy texture. The resulting crumb is mid-sized (not too large, not too small) and the cake is firm and springy. Just be sure not to over-cream the butter and sugar together, otherwise it may deflate in the oven. It is common for this mixture to curdle once liquids are added, especially if the liquid is cold. You can mitigate this by adding a few tablespoons of the recipe’s dry ingredients to the butter and sugar BEFORE adding the first egg.

2.) Paste method This method is simple — there’s no need to worry about how long to cream the butter and sugar together for optimal results. The texture of these are different than creamed cakes though still delicious; it’s more even and tender with a fine-grained crumb that’s a little more dense, more like pound cake. They can be delicate, even crumbly in a pleasant way.

3.) Hot Milk Cake method This is a classic method that produces a fine-grained cake; it’s prepared similar to a sponge cake. The addition of heated milk helps to set the protein in the eggs, meaning they’re more easily able to hold onto the air that’s been beaten into them. This formula usually has less fat than a creamed or paste method cake.

4.) Adding melted butter This technique is usually used in sponge cake formulas, like genoise. Best results in this technique are achieved when the butter is melted but cooled, and is folded in quickly and thoroughly, without deflating the eggs. The butter’s function in these cakes is to make it more flexible in a preparation such as a jelly roll. The other place melted butter is added is in the cake portion of a pudding cake, where melting is primarily done to make mixing the batter simpler. In those formula, melted butter is mixed in, and which coats the flour in fat to prevent gluten development. This in turn makes a more tender texture if the batter’s not over-mixed, with a slightly more open crumb.

For more information on cake baking, please check out our full Cake Baking Guide. Happy baking! Kye@KAF

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