![]() ![]() This technique starts by slowly beating together butter, sugar, and flour, which coats the flour with fat and helps prevent over-development of its gluten during the ensuing mixing process. Reverse-creamed (aka paste) cakes, like the Recipe of the Year coffee cake, can also suffer from undermixing. The result? Under-developed gluten, and cake with a compressed “soggy bottom” thanks to its inability to rise fully.Īnother cake recipe that suffered from undermixing during the Test Kitchen's initial test batches. In order to preserve the air beaten into the creamed sugar/butter mixture, the careful baker may be hesitant to mix the final batter for as long as necessary. By the time all of the various ingredients are thoroughly combined, the flour’s gluten has had sufficient time to develop thoroughly.Ĭakes made using the creaming technique seem most prone to undermixing. My favorite stir-together cake, cake pan cake, is so foolproof that the original version called for skipping the mixing bowl and simply stirring everything together right in the cake pan! While it’s possible to undermix batter for a stir-together cake, it’s not likely. “One-bowl” stir-together cakes, which don’t require any beating, are also fairly immune to undermixing. Since they contain no fat to potentially interfere with their gluten development, gently (but thoroughly) folding the flour into the batter is sufficient to develop its gluten. ![]() For instance, foam cakes, made by folding sugar and flour into whipped egg whites (think angel food ) do fine even if undermixed slightly. Theoretically, the batter for any type of cake can be undermixed, but some cakes are less likely than others to suffer from undermixing. Which types of cakes are prone to undermixing? ![]() This Coconut Cake is a tasty example of a cream-method cake note its fine, even texture. But undermixing cake batter - and thus under-developing its gluten - also poses structural problems: It can yield cake that crumbles easily and doesn’t rise very high, resulting in a dense layer of unrisen batter atop the bottom crust. However, developing gluten past its ideal point makes cake tough, and may also cause it to rise too vigorously and then fall as it bakes, resulting in gummy streaks in its texture. Not only does it provide bulk in the form of starch, but its gluten is responsible for a cake’s structure.Īs you mix your cake ingredients together, the flour’s gluten strengthens and aligns itself into an elastic web that will support the cake as it rises. What happens if cake batter is undermixed?įlour is a critical ingredient in baking. The recipe directions for the blueberry coffee cake have now been amended to include this cautionary direction: “ … mix again at low speed for 1 minute this final mix is key to ensuring the best texture, so don't skip it.” Extending the mixing time just a bit can solve this problem. Photography by Rick Holbrook food styling by Kaitlin WayneĪdding just 1 extra minute of mixing time eliminated the cake's dense bottom.įurther tests supported this theory: Undermixing can yield cakes with dense bottoms, due to lack of gluten development and subsequent weak structure (both of which prevent the cake from rising fully). ![]()
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