Grocery store cake

[alex566]

How come when I go get a slice of cake at the store their cake is VERY fine textured and is like velvet, but when I make cake its never like theres!

I so badly want that delightful texture, I have done a lot of research checking out all the different ways to make cake batter and still have found nothing about that kind of cake. Does anyone know what I am talking about here? Help Thankyou

 

[Uncle Bob]

Hi Alex..Welcome to DC. Come in a make and yourself at home.

I'm not a baker, but quite possibly the difference is the flour. Be patient and someone will come along to give you the details on the different flours...
Also, most "grocery store" cakes are not baked on site, but rather come in frozen by the case and are thawed and decorated as needed. Oh, in very broad terms the icing they use is mostly shortning & sugar based.

 

[Dina]

Alex,
If you notice many store bought cakes and cake mixes include cake flour, shortening and other fats in them. In my opinion, it's a combination of fats in the mix so it tends to make the cake have the velvety texture. I personally prefer homemade cakes which call for mostly butter (sometimes sour cream) as butter is a fat that the body can identify and easily digest as opposed to the other trans-fats and hydrogenated fats that our bodies don't need. I will continue to research this question and get more info for you. Hope this helps a bit.

 

[David Cottrell]

Alex, Dina just stole my thought - how did you do that Dina? I guess that's one of the reason's you are an Exceutive Chef! Anyway, I was going to ask you Alex if you have read the list of ingredients in the store "boughten" cakes. You might just prefer a good home made cake after that. Sounds like you can do a pretty good job!

 

[Dina]

David,
I've learned and thing or two about the "bad" fats that we don't need and often lead to disease. I'm sure you can also contribute some good info on your thoughts on here.

Alex,
Here's a bit of cake science and bad fats for you to ponder on. Cake Ingredient Science - How Baking Ingredients Perform in Scratch Cakes Fat

 

[David Cottrell]

I just did learn, by way of Dina

David,
I've learned and thing or two about the "bad" fats that we don't need and often lead to disease. I'm sure you can also contribute some good info on your thoughts on here.

Alex,
Here's a bit of cake science and bad fats for you to ponder on. Cake Ingredient Science - How Baking Ingredients Perform in Scratch Cakes Fat

Yes indeed, that link is great - I had recently made a Ukrainian recipe Honey Cake which has some importance to me (in cooking land). Excellent taste etc. but I thought it to be a touch heavy. Maybe two touches so I wanted to sharpen up for the next try. I think you just fixed it for me. Thanks Dina, Kudos to the Executive Chef!

 

[Michael in FtW]

That's a great site Dina! Another one I like is Baking 911 - just click on cakes, scroll down the page and click on What Went Wrong ....

One book I would highly recommend is Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed by Shirley Corriher. I know there is a good discussion about this very problem in there ... unfortunately my copy is somewhere in a stack of boxes on the other side of town waiting for the movers on Monday so it's a little hard for me to look anything up right now. Oh, if you've ever watched Good Eats and Alton had a heavyset older woman with short grey hair talking about the science of what was going on all excited ... that was Shirley.