Humax

The cakes having butter as the main and most important ingredient are known as butter cakes. In America, butter cakes are very famous and popular. Butter cakes have been originated from pound cakes which are famous in United Kingdom. These cakes were prepared in ancient times using traditional methods. They used equal amounts of flour, sugar, butter and eggs as their ingredients to prepare a rich and heavy cake. The 19th century came with the invention and discovery of leavening agents which were natural as well as synthetically prepared and baking powder. Their invention led to a change in the traditional methods of making and preparation of cakes as their introduction made it possible for us to make fluffier and lighter cakes than before.

Butter cakes are a perfect blend of traditional and modern ingredients. The traditional method of making butter cakes involved a creaming method. In this method sugar and butter are beaten until enough number of air bubbles done get incorporated into the butter and it does not become fluffy. Slowly and gradually, eggs are put. Now an emulsion is created. Now all the ingredients are added one by one, first wet and then dry. If butter cakes are stored in refrigerators they get stiffened, dried and most importantly they loosse their flavor. All this makes them unsuitable and unfit for any kind of filling or decoration by frosting. The ingredients needed or used for frosting must be refrigerated in advance only. Some of the ingredients for frosting are pastry cream and cream cheese frosting. Butter cakes are better off if they are kept at room temperature as their moistness and richness is not lost unlike when they are refrigerated.

Once a cake is made it needs to be decorating which enhances its beauty. A cake is decorated by sprinkling toppings, covering it with icing or frosting. Toppings are also known as Jimmies in the United States. Powdered sugar, fat in some form, cream or milk and additives which have different flavors like cocoa powder or vanilla extract are usually used to make frosting. A fondant icing in the rolled form is also used by some of the cake decorators. In commercial bakeries, they use lard as a supplement for fat. The lard is whipped and beaten so that enough air bubbles are formed so that the cake becomes lighter and fluffier. This also helps in icing the cake.

The icing can be easily spread. People who make cake at home use butter, lard or margarine. The jimmies they use are ground sugar, oils with food flavoring and coloring. Now a day’s cake decoration has become more important. People have started using special tools that have been disegned to decorate the cake. Some of the tools are syringes, piping bags, piping tips etc. These tools help the cake decorator to decorate the cakes in different styles and designs. This can be done by having knowledge about how to using different tips and the various techniques involved in making different and varied designs.