Foodly Experts
Is it better to do cake with butter or oil? In fact, it depends a lot on your goal.
I’ll show you next when it is interesting to use butter in the dough and when to use the oil. In addition, I will show you what the effects of each of these ingredients are. Let’s check it out?
Contenus
What is the difference between using butter and oil on the cake? 5 tips to make no mistake!
Neither is better than the other and both make the dough tasty. What happens is that each ingredient behaves differently in the dough. So, it will depend a lot on your goal when creating a specific cake recipe.
Do you intend to make a cake for a birthday or any other party? Do you want to sell? Will the cake be exposed outdoors? Will the cake be stored in the refrigerator?
Understanding the objective, then you will have to choose the best one for each occasion. Butter is responsible for making the dough much more textured. Ideal for making sponge cake, naked cake or high shape cakes, which need more support.
On the other hand, it is not suitable for making cakes that need to be refrigerated. That’s because the butter hardens at the lowest temperature, which means that your cake will also harden and possibly dry out.
But if you are making the cake for birthday or parties, no problem. Think with me, you will take the cake made with butter to the refrigerator, to firm the filling and icing. When you take it out of the refrigerator and leave it exposed on the table, gradually the butter in the dough will begin to return to normal.
1. Homemade pasta made with oil
One of the greatest characteristics of a pasta made with oil is its softness. Therefore, using oil in the dough is indicated for homemade cakes, without filling, but also filled or topped cakes that need to be kept refrigerated.
If you intend to make a cake for the family and you know it will be left over, then make it with oil. This way, the leftovers can (and should) be taken to the refrigerator without losing the cuteness, nor the humidity. In addition, the oil helps to preserve the dough in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
2. Excess oil spoils the recipe
I’ve seen around recipes that ask for 1 cup of oil in the dough for 3 cups of flour. It’s too much! Besides not being so healthy for our health, it brings a viscous aspect to the cake and, many times, leaves the pasta with an oil taste.
The ideal amount is only ½ cup. With this measure, you get the perfect texture of the cake, with the necessary moisture and alloy to make the dough fluffy.
3. Can I use melted butter on the cake?
I’ve seen a lot of people doing this process to « make it easy » when incorporating it with the other ingredients. Even for beat the cake in hand, melted butter may help, but it is not indicated.
If you intend to melt the butter to make the dough by hand, then it is better to opt for the oil. When we melt the butter, we end up separating the fat from the milk. So, we are not going to get the butter to act as an emulsifier in the dough.
4. Should fruit cake be made with butter or oil?
The ideal is to use the oil because of the fruits that can spoil if left out of the refrigerator.
Another issue is that fruits usually release a little liquid when placed in the middle of the dough or filling. If you make a dough with butter and add fruit to it, when you take it to the refrigerator, the butter will harden that liquid.
So it will look slimy and greasy, which is not cool. The fat from the butter will form a protective layer on these fruits. With that, the dough may lose even the moisture it would have with the fruits.
5. Should I use salted or unsalted butter in the dough?
Well, I always use salted butter on my cakes. I will explain why. You may have seen recipes that ask you to add 1 pinch of salt to the dough, right?
The salt serves to enhance the flavor of the cake. So, if you use the butter already with salt, you do not need to add this pinch. The cake will be delicious.
On the other hand, most confectioners do not think exactly that way. Many say that it is important to use unsalted butter because we must choose the amount of salt in the cake.
This makes sense, considering that most industrialized products have a lot of salt in their composition. But it’s one thing to use just 2 tablespoons of butter to beat the dough and another thing to use 1 cup of butter to make a butter cake, for example.
The difference in quantity is stark. So, there is no problem if you are going to make a simple cake. But if you are going to make a buttery cake, DO NOT use salted butter. 😉
I very much hope that this information has been useful to you. Now you’ve become an expert on the subject, haven’t you? Take the opportunity to put everything into practice as soon as possible and don’t forget to share the tips!
