Welcome
Cakes from Scratch
04/30/09
Posted by: martha
It was a lesson jam-packed with tips, instructions and recipes on baking simple cakes at home from ingredients in your pantry. Lots of yummy frosting recipes too. A bonus lesson for our members was a delight with a photo tutorial on how to make sweet, delicate PETITE FOURS.
One of our members writes:
So.....is using shortening for your oil one of the tricks for making a good homemade cake? I noticed that nearly all of the rcipes in the lesson use shortening. Our family prefers to use butter rather than shortening for health reasons. What is that going to mean for my cakes? Can I swap out butter for shortening in these recipes? What would happen? I'm assuming the texture would change? Would it still be okay?
Martha answered:
I am pretty sure your texture/outcome of your baked product will change with a substitution of shortening. But you may want to try it as it may not be too much of a difference....enough to make it bad? I never have substituted in a cake recipe.
My take on it is that "Cake" is not healthy anyway! It is not my family's "daily bread". So, I do use shortening in things that won't taste like a "bakery shoppe" if I don't use the right ingredients called for in a recipe. In some things like cakes, pie crusts and biscuits I choose to use "healthy" shortening. Ha! Is there such a thing?
I currently am thrilled with the baked goods I can make with SPECTRUM Natural NON -Hydrogenated Shortening.
We can all agree that the ordinary shortening off the grocery store shelf is just UCK! It seems to be just whipped plastic! :? Especially the cheaper brands! Double UCK! I completely refuse to use it for my family and I used to bake with it alot. It gave us terrible heart burn and no telling what it did to our bodies inside! If you research it and see what it actually is and what it does for you no one could really justify eating it and feel good about feeding that to their family?
My tub of this "healthish shortening" says this:
"Organic and better for you than ordinary shortening because it is never hydrogenated, has 0 grams of trans fats, and is made from palm oil which is naturally cholesterol free and a good source of healthy monounsaturated fat."
I do feel much better about the SPECTRUM Palm Shortening (Organic) and use it every now and then as an ingredient in baking for a "treat" food.
Use it sparingly and don't live on fluffy cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Make it a treat for a special occasion.
My 2 cents,
Martha at the HMM
One of our members writes:
So.....is using shortening for your oil one of the tricks for making a good homemade cake? I noticed that nearly all of the rcipes in the lesson use shortening. Our family prefers to use butter rather than shortening for health reasons. What is that going to mean for my cakes? Can I swap out butter for shortening in these recipes? What would happen? I'm assuming the texture would change? Would it still be okay?
Martha answered:
I am pretty sure your texture/outcome of your baked product will change with a substitution of shortening. But you may want to try it as it may not be too much of a difference....enough to make it bad? I never have substituted in a cake recipe.
My take on it is that "Cake" is not healthy anyway! It is not my family's "daily bread". So, I do use shortening in things that won't taste like a "bakery shoppe" if I don't use the right ingredients called for in a recipe. In some things like cakes, pie crusts and biscuits I choose to use "healthy" shortening. Ha! Is there such a thing?
I currently am thrilled with the baked goods I can make with SPECTRUM Natural NON -Hydrogenated Shortening.
We can all agree that the ordinary shortening off the grocery store shelf is just UCK! It seems to be just whipped plastic! :? Especially the cheaper brands! Double UCK! I completely refuse to use it for my family and I used to bake with it alot. It gave us terrible heart burn and no telling what it did to our bodies inside! If you research it and see what it actually is and what it does for you no one could really justify eating it and feel good about feeding that to their family?
My tub of this "healthish shortening" says this:
"Organic and better for you than ordinary shortening because it is never hydrogenated, has 0 grams of trans fats, and is made from palm oil which is naturally cholesterol free and a good source of healthy monounsaturated fat."
I do feel much better about the SPECTRUM Palm Shortening (Organic) and use it every now and then as an ingredient in baking for a "treat" food.
Use it sparingly and don't live on fluffy cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Make it a treat for a special occasion.
My 2 cents,
Martha at the HMM