!!Butter Cake Know How!!

My experience so farrrrrr

Note 1: Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. It might look like a cake frosting. But this is good.

Note 2: Eggs have to be really fluffy. To guarantee fluffiness, beat egg separately until airy and fluffy, and only after then you can add in to the butter mixture in batches. Usually divided into 3 batches, or more. This can save a lot of time in terms of creaming the batter. 

Note 3: Alternate your beating. If you are adding anything into the butter mixture, add in batches and alternate your beating to keep the batter light, airy, fluffy, and does not collapse on itself. It means you have to beat the mixture first to keep it light before adding another batch e.g. beat batter > add in xx ingredient batch 1 > beat batter > add in xx ingredient batch 2 > beat batter > add in xx ingredient final batch > beat again.

Note 4: Before adding your flour in, do not be afraid of overmixing! In fact, you can beat the batter as much as you want before adding flour in. You only need to be afraid of overmixing or overbeating the batter when you are working with flour (fear of gluten formation, which is desirable in bread but not cake, because it will make cake holey and stretchy) and whipping / heavy cream (fear of accidentally churning butter).

Note 5: 1:1:1 is my golden ratio for butter cake. It is derived from pound cake recipe (with respect to butter : sugar : flour). 1:1:2 is also acceptable.

Note 6: Butter vs margarine - flavour and texture may change. Butter resulted in slightly creamier, milkier, wetter and more moist cake. If not careful, might bake a dense cake. Margarine resulted in lighter and drier cake. You can compensate that with adding extra milk. If not careful, might bake a very dry cake.

Note 7: Cake flour vs all purpose flour - texture may change. Cake flour usually resulted in tall, quite airy, less crumbly cake. All purpose flour usually resulted in shorter, slightly less airy and more crumbly cake. Though both flour have no effect on taste or flavour profile, it may affect texture and presentation. Still, both flour are equally delicious. It depends on the kinds of cake you are making and the kinds of aesthetics you are looking for. Cake flour - modern, refined, smooth, light, fine. AP flour - traditional, rustic, moist, decadent. 

Note 8: For pound cake, baking at low temp like 160C under oven fan for 30-40 minutes may give it ample time it needed to rise and form cracks at the top. Higher temp might force it to bake faster and NOT giving it enough time to rise and get its signature cracks.