Reverse Creaming
- Thread starter Akos
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Reverse creaming can only be used on shortened cakes. Foam cakes, such as sponge, genoise, chiffons, and angel food, do not contain a solid fat, use significantly less sugar, and require egg whites for leavening so they cannot be mixed using reverse creaming.
In chocolate cake, If you are using cocoa powder, sift the cocoa powder with all your dry ingredients.
If you’re using a combination of cocoa powder and melted chocolate, sift the cocoa powder with all the dry ingredients. Then add the melted chocolate after you have incorporated the shortening into the dry ingredients.
In the absence of high ratio flour and high ratio shortening, the only way to benefit from using the reverse creaming method is using bleached cake flour. Bleached all purpose flour and unbleached flour are not going to be significantly different by using reverse creaming.
Reverse creaming is a modification of a commercial mixing method for high ratio cake production.
So reverse creaming really doesn’t make much difference when used by home bakers for the following reasons:
- Small batches of batter only mixed less than 3 minutes
- Not made with high ratio cake flour
- Not made with high ratio shortening.
High ratio cake flour is not the same as bleached cake flour sold in retail stores. Commercial high ratio cake flour is a low protein wheat that has been high heat treated to alter the molecular structure.
In changing the molecular structure, the flour absorbs less water, so it cannot develop much gluten.
High ratio shortening is not the same as shortening sold in grocery stores (like crisco). Commercial high ratio shortening contains emulsifiers that are not added to retail shortening.
The mixers used in commercial production are far more powerful than a home mixer. So use of these mixers alone can cause far more gluten development than a home mixer.
In addition there is significantly more batter mixed per batch in commercial production. This requires longer mixing time than a home made cake.
And given the scale of production, cake batter is not going to be in the oven 60 seconds after mixing is completed.
So commercial grade high ratio flour and high ratio shortening are designed to counter gluten development and preserves starch quality. The mixing method simply ensures the flour and shortening perform as designed. So using the mixing method alone, without the high ratio flour and shortening, will not produce the same results,
In the 1980’s Rose Levy Beranbaum included the high ratio method as reverse creaming in her cookbook, The Cake Bible. The method became popular because bakers saw a improvement in their cakes. But her recipes also used bleached cake flour, as do nearly all her recipes in Heavenly Cakes.
The mixing method was actually developed by Pillsbury in the 1940’s for use with their boxed cake mixes. Commercially produced boxed cake mixes contain high ratio cake flour. They also contain commercial grade emulsifiers that the home bakery cannot purchase. Further confirmation that the method is designed for the commercial grade ingredients.
This cake is made with a premium unbleached flour. As you can see mixing method alone will not create a light fluffy cake. The type of flour and fat are the key.
This is retail store bleached cake flour.
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I forgot to mention that these two cakes were made using the same recipe. Same mixing method. Same cake pans. Same oven temperature.
The only difference between these two cakes is one was made with unbleached all purpose flour (Central Milling), the other was bleached cake flour (Softasilk).
The only difference between these two cakes is one was made with unbleached all purpose flour (Central Milling), the other was bleached cake flour (Softasilk).