Mary Berry warns cake bakers to avoid certain type of butter for crucial reason
Former Great British Bake Off judge Mary Berry urges all bakers to look at the ingredients in a block of butter before applying it to your mix - or risk a spoilt recipe
Mary Berry is one of the biggest names, if not the biggest, in the baking world. Chances are that you've followed one of her recipes - and now the national treasure has some crucial baking advice.
Whether you're a novice, a semi-pro or bake for a living, the 90-year-old cooking genius has warned about using a certain type of butter when it comes to baking cakes.
The former judge of The Great British Bake Off has many years of culinary experiences, starting up from her training at Le Cordon Bleu to writing 70 cookbooks. Whether you're preparing a birthday cake from scratch, or recreating her famous Victoria sponge cake, the butter you use can change the quality of your recipe, she says.
Mary said the key is in the butter's ingredients, something that must be checked in the supermarket as opposed to mid-way through your kitchen escapades. She wrote for BBC Good Food: 'I always aim at over 75%. The problem with lower fat spreads and butters is they have a higher water content. When it evaporates it causes layers bind together in your mix. In the UK we tend to always have high fat content so it's not usually a problem, but it's always worth checking your ingredients.'
The importance of high-quality butter reflects how light, moist and tender the cake will come out. Butter with higher fat content (over 75%) contains less water, and therefore, it helps retain any air pockets.
And don't forget to let it soften
When it comes to baking, it's normal to forget to remove one or two ingredients from the fridge. Butter is one of the products that requires some extra time to become soft and ready to use.
A useful tip when it comes to butter is to cut it up into cubes straight from the fridge and keep it in a bowl of lukewarm water. Leave it for 10 minutes as you prepare the rest of the ingredients until it becomes soft.
Nonetheless, it's important to measure the amount of butter before, instead of cutting the whole butter. This is because 'melting' the butter and putting the leftovers back in the fridge can affect its taste for future uses.
By following this simple advice from Mary Berry, you can ensure that your next sponge cake (or any cake you decide to make) tastes as creamy and soft as ever before. The more fat, the richer, moister and fluffier the results will be - and it's your first time doing this, it surely won't be the last one.
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