 Hazelnutbrown butter cake | |
| Main ingredients | Butter,sugar,flour,eggs |
|---|---|
Abutter cake is acake in which one of the main ingredients isbutter. A butter cake is baked with basic ingredients: butter,sugar,eggs,flour andleavening agents such asbaking powder orbaking soda. It is considered one of the quintessential cakes in American baking.[1] Butter cake originated from the Englishpound cake, which traditionally used equal amounts of butter, flour, sugar, and eggs to bake a heavy, rich cake.[2]
The invention of baking powder and other chemicalleavening agents during the 19th century substantially increased the flexibility of this traditionalpound cake by introducing the possibility of creating lighter, fluffier cakes using these traditional combinations of ingredients, and it is this transformation that brought about the modern butter cake.[3]
Butter cakes are traditionally made using acreaming method, in which thebutter andsugar are first beaten until fluffy to incorporate air into the butter.Eggs are then added gradually, creating an emulsion, followed by alternating portions of wet and dry ingredients.
Butter cakes are typically rich and moist when stored at room temperature, but they tend to stiffen, dry out, and lose flavor when refrigerated, making them unsuitable for filling or frosting in advance with ingredients that must be refrigerated, such ascream cheesefrosting andpastry cream.[citation needed]
