Food - Drink
The Reverse-Creaming Method, Explained
By KATIE LENHARDT
Baking is a science full of perfect temperatures, precise measurements, and chemical reactions that can make or break one’s baked goods. Achieving the ideal cake, bread, or pastry requires precision and tried and tested baking techniques such as reverse-creaming.
Three-time James Beard Award recipient Rose Levy Beranbaum introduced this method in 1982, but it wasn't until she published "The Cake Bible" that the masses took notice of the fail-proof technique. Beranbaum discovered the technique in cookbooks designed for production bakers and began experimenting with the technique for home cooking.
Beranbaum wrote that “all the dry ingredients are first combined with the butter and a minimum amount of liquid, which coats the flour before adding the remaining liquid ingredients" in three stages. This method, she added, “is faster, easier, and virtually eliminates any possibility of toughening the cake by overbeating."
King Arthur Baking agrees, saying that this method creates a more tender cake, because the flour is coated in fat from the get-go. The staff at Martha Stewart specifically recommends the technique for bakers who want a flatter, icing-ready cake that has a sturdier crumb structure but is still delicate.