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Two Stage Method


mignardise

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The white cake I make on a regular basis is two stage with butter. I originally thought that using a hi ratio method with butter wouldn't work, but it does. I've never tried converting other recipes to two stage, but what the heck, I will experiment with it. Two stage mixing is a cinch! :rolleyes:

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The white cake I make on a regular basis is two stage with butter. I originally thought that using a hi ratio method with butter wouldn't work, but it does. I've never tried converting other recipes to two stage, but what the heck, I will experiment with it. Two stage mixing is a cinch! :rolleyes:

Any cautions and points i should be aware of?

I tried this from RLB but the cake came out dry and unpleasant, so i am kind of scared with this two stage thing...still sticking to creaming the butter!

Thnkx :smile:

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I use the 2 stage method all this time. I know this sound silly but be careful on the time in the oven, also I add some shortening in addition to the called for butter. I like the crumb a bit more, oops I should say i use her wedding cake recipes in the back, never have had the recipes in the front be dry.

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Wondering if anyone has had a bad result converting their recipe using a two stage method. According to RLB, it's okay.

http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2005/12/..._layer_cak.html

This is my favorite method for cake making and many other baked goods. Why? Because the results yield an even crumb, never any large air holes and also creates a moist crumb. The best reason though is because the fat is protecting the flour from producing gluten, something you always want to prevent in cakes (tough cakes.) It also makes the cakes more tender. I can't hype this method enough.

Here is a tip from Nick Malgieri in his Perfect Cakes book when converting to the two-step method or sometimes called the high-ratio cake method. Any cake recipe can be converted to this method if the weight of the sugar is equal to or is greater than the weight of the flour. To calculate this, figure out the weight of each; 1 cup of sugar is equal to 8 ounces, 1 cups of flour is equal to 4 ounces.

Edited by RodneyCk (log)
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Any cautions and points i should be aware of?

I tried this from RLB but the cake came out dry and unpleasant, so i am kind of scared with this two stage thing...still sticking to creaming the butter!

Thnkx :smile:

It is not the two step method that is making her Velvet cake dry, it is the recipe itself. I hate that recipe, but love the book it is in. Unfortunately, everyone seems to gravitate towards it, which is a shame, because it does not do scratch cakes justice. There are many here who have posted bad results with it as well, dry as sand. You definitely need to use some moistening syrup with it if you every make it again. My take, there are better white layer cake recipes, so skip it.

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Hmmmm......not all.

Vanilla Butter Cake -Fine Cooking, sugar is less than flour

1 1/2 cups- 2 3/4 cups, using the two stage

Given your recipe listed above and using Nick's calculations, you have;

1 1/2 cups sugar = 12 ounces

2 3/4 cups flour = 11 ounces

So, your sugar weighs slightly more than the flour and so you can use the two step method.

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To calculate this, figure out the weight of each; 1 cup of sugar is equal to 8 ounces, 1 cups of flour is equal to 4 ounces.

This reminds me of something that happened when I first started out on my own.... I was converting the carrot cake recipe from volume to weight for large scale: 3 cups of sugar (21 oz) and 3 cups of flour - and I mis-read the chart in the Cake Bible and thought it was supposed to be 4 oz per cup, so I routinely used 12 oz of flour. The cake never came out the way it did in class - the top crust was always very crisp but I never put it together that it was because it was too much sugar and not enough flour. It wasn't until I was reading a Cook's Illustrated that answered a mail-in question about flour weight and it said that cake flour was 4 oz/cup and all purpose (scooped) weighed 5 oz per cup that I realized I had been using the wrong amount of flour. When I went to 5 oz/cup = 15 oz flour, that's when things went back to normal.

So with this thread (and the one about to sift or not to sift - AKA the Eighth Circle of Hell), I checked the Pie and Pastry bible (because I need to make a tart for tomorrow and can't decide which one I want to make), and there's all purpose bleached/all purpose unbleached, bread flour, cake flour and pastry flour! All of them have different weights based on how they're measured, with the biggest difference between sifted and dip/sweep. The range for a/p bleached is sifted 4 oz, lightly spooned 4.2 oz and dip/sweep 5.2 oz - so that's quite a swing and enough to make a difference in what you're making....

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To calculate this, figure out the weight of each; 1 cup of sugar is equal to 8 ounces, 1 cups of flour is equal to 4 ounces.

This reminds me of something that happened when I first started out on my own.... I was converting the carrot cake recipe from volume to weight for large scale: 3 cups of sugar (21 oz) and 3 cups of flour - and I mis-read the chart in the Cake Bible and thought it was supposed to be 4 oz per cup, so I routinely used 12 oz of flour. The cake never came out the way it did in class - the top crust was always very crisp but I never put it together that it was because it was too much sugar and not enough flour. It wasn't until I was reading a Cook's Illustrated that answered a mail-in question about flour weight and it said that cake flour was 4 oz/cup and all purpose (scooped) weighed 5 oz per cup that I realized I had been using the wrong amount of flour. When I went to 5 oz/cup = 15 oz flour, that's when things went back to normal.

So with this thread (and the one about to sift or not to sift - AKA the Eighth Circle of Hell), I checked the Pie and Pastry bible (because I need to make a tart for tomorrow and can't decide which one I want to make), and there's all purpose bleached/all purpose unbleached, bread flour, cake flour and pastry flour! All of them have different weights based on how they're measured, with the biggest difference between sifted and dip/sweep. The range for a/p bleached is sifted 4 oz, lightly spooned 4.2 oz and dip/sweep 5.2 oz - so that's quite a swing and enough to make a difference in what you're making....

Oh I agree. I think Nick was using the forumla as a rough guide to determine if you can use the two step method, nothing exact as far as weight, I assume. I have used it in recipes with sugar that did weigh less than flour and the results were fine.

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is anyone using the two-stage with fluid flex, or are you just mixing it all straight?

Yes, when I used Fluid Flex (fond memories :wub: ), I used the two stage method.

I generally try to stay away from weird-ass commercial shortenings because I happen to live in a

town of organic hippie freaks, but man, that stuff was magic.

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