How Different Fats Stand up in Cakes
You already know different fats can be used in cakes, do you know why?
Most cake recipes use butter, rather than oil or shortening, for its satisfyingly rich flavor. But fat in cakes isn’t just for flavor; the amount of fat in a recipe helps determine the texture of the cakes' crumb. Typically, the more fat you add, the more tender your cake will be - and sometimes, the more crumbly. Since fat coats the flour proteins, it inhibits their ability to form a strong gluten network. Let’s take a look at when you would (or wouldn’t) use shortening, oil, and butter in cakes.
Shortening
We know shortening works well in some baked goods because it yields a tender crumb. However, vegetable shortening is generally a poor choice for cakes. It’s simply flavorless, and in recipes where it could be used, butter is always a better option. Save the shortening for other recipes.
Vegetable Oil
Vegetable oil can be a welcome addition to cakes. It provides tenderizing fat without the addition of water, and remains fluid at colder temperatures, which can yield a softer crumb in the cooked cake. It can also be used in combination with melted butter to ensure tenderness and give certain cakes a moistness that is otherwise missing. In addition to that, oil’s neutral flavor can be used to your advantage: in chocolate cakes, the use of oil allows the chocolate flavor to shine, unlike with butter which can mute it. Cakes made with oil are often of the rustic variety, as oil can’t be creamed and aerated the way butter can. And of course too much oil can make cakes - you guessed it - oily. All this to say oil has its place, and you can’t simply substitute it for butter in any application.
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
We typically reach for a neutral oil to add to cakes, however, we have happily discovered that the slightly savory notes of olive oil can, in fact, lend appealing complexity to a cake. And while there’s no need to splurge on a premium extra-virgin olive oil, spring for a good supermarket product such as our favorite from California Olive Ranch. A cheap supermarket EVOO won’t deliver enough character.
Butter
Butter is the most frequently used fat in cakes. And while creaming butter and sugar until aerated and lighter in color (a fundamental technique that helps cakes rise), may be the most common mixing method, it’s not the only one. There’s also reverse creaming (mixing softened butter with the dry ingredients before adding liquid ingredients), and the quick-bread method (adding melted butter to the liquid ingredients). Each serves a specific purpose and using the right technique ensures your cake will have the desired texture.
The Take-Away
Follow the mixing method of the recipe you’re making for best results. To demonstrate how a seemingly simple swap of oil for butter affects the finished cake, here are two samples of Lemon Bundt Cake, one made with creamed butter, as the recipes calls for, and one made with oil. The cake made with oil (right) has less rise, is dense, and has a coarser crumb and a pale exterior. The cake made with butter (left) is lofty, with a finer, softer crumb and a deep golden exterior.
