How to cream butter and sugar
26 June 2020

Creaming butter and sugar together is a key skill to understand for a large amount of recipes, especially cakes.

Cakes are normally one of the first things that an aspiring baker will make and experiment with, so it is vital that you understand exactly what this process involves. When a recipe says cream together butter and sugar, what you are trying to achieve is aerating the butter using the sugar, which is producing bubbles that will be filled with the gasses released by the leavening agent in the recipe.

This is why it is important to make sure that you cream the butter and sugar enough to make sure this aeration is completed.Creaming butter and sugar together is a key skill to understand for a large amount of recipes, especially cakes.

Cakes are normally one of the first things that an aspiring baker will make and experiment with, so it is vital that you understand exactly what this process involves.

When a recipe says cream together butter and sugar, what you are trying to achieve is aerating the butter using the sugar, which is producing bubbles that will be filled with the gasses released by the leavening agent in the recipe. This is why it is important to make sure that you cream the butter and sugar enough to make sure this aeration is completed.
When creaming butter and sugar, you will need softened butter, which should be soft enough that you can put a spoon right through it but not so soft that it is melting.

This is important as when it comes to beating the butter and sugar you will struggle to incorporate air effectively and end up with a dense, grainy spread instead of a smooth light mixture.

We will not have a look at how long to cream butter and sugar, depending on your method of doing so. If you are creaming butter and sugar by hand then for a small to medium sized mixture you can expect to be creaming for around 10-15 minutes, but this will involve a lot of effort and if you beat slower you may find it takes longer.

The fastest way to cream butter and sugar is using a table top mixer, that should take around 3-5 minutes on a medium beating speed. Be aware of the consistency, and feel the mix between your fingers (it should be smooth with very few grains). The finishing colour should be a very pale yellow, not completely white as this is a sign that it has been over creamed, and will cause a dense, gummy texture to the finished cake.

There are two main schools of thought when it comes to how to cream butter and sugar by hand. One such method is to mix it with a wooden spoon or firm silicone spatula, and beat consistently with a circular motion, making sure to scrape down the bowl into the middle to prevent leaving any excess butter that has not been creamed. This method is typically the slower of the two methods by hand, but it is easier to do physically as you do not need to mix as fast as the other method, which is creaming with a whisk.

When creaming with a whisk, you need a fast motion, again making sure to scrape down excess butter into the mixture and keep a close eye on the texture as this method will make it slightly easier to over cream the mix.

With the proper creaming technique, you will find it much easier to create beautifully light and airy sponges of any variety, and can hopefully use this information to push your baking further with new flavours and styles of cakes.

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