Our friend Summer Stone is here to share some insight on how fat affects our cake recipes…
I fully admit I am a bit of a butter fanatic. I love nothing more than a kitchen filled with the heady aroma of baked goods loaded with the golden richness of sweet cream butter. But the scientist in me demands that I keep an open mind when evaluating which kind of fat leads to the best cake. Fat in cake plays a diverse set roles; it provides moistness, aeration (leavening), flavor, texture and tenderness. The problem with determining which type of fat qualifies as the cake-fat champion is that different fats affect different characteristics of the cake. Butter is known for its flavor profile, oil for moisture provision, shortening for aeration and margarine a combination of attributes.
In order to get a handle on how varied fats alter cake properties, I baked a vanilla cake recipe varying only the type of fat used. The fats included butter, canola oil, shortening and stick-type margarine. Here is what I discovered about using different fats in this cake.
BUTTER:
Being slightly butter prejudiced, I expected the butter cake to be the flavor standout. What I found was that the flavor of the butter was difficult to detect even when compared directly to the other cakes. I think if these cakes were laden with buttercream the subtle differences would be even less distinguishable. The value of the butter came in its ability to create a beautifully fine-textured cake. The small crumb size was noticeable when compared to the more open crumb of all of the other cakes. This compact crumb does lead to a cake that has less height than the others, but even so, it did not seem overly dense.
OIL:
I was pleasantly surprised by the oil cake. I expected it to be moist, which it was; the oil cake was definitely the moistest of all of the cakes. But what I found interesting was that the oil cake was as tall and light as the shortening cake. I had expected the oil cake to be more short and dense since oil doesn’t hold air pockets as well as butter or shortening, but this was not the case. This cake did have a slightly coarser, more open crumb than the butter cake but the texture was by no means unpleasant. I also expected the oil cake to taste flat, yet it had a pleasant neutral vanilla flavor that tasted quite similar to the butter cake.
SHORTENING:
The shortening cake was by far my least favorite. While the cake was tall and light in density, the texture was coarse, dry and crumbly. The flavor was fine, but the texture was so unappealing that any favorable characteristics were overshadowed.
MARGARINE:
Truthfully, I expected the margarine cake to be awful. But it wasn’t as bad as I had envisioned. The margarine cake was nearly as moist as the oil cake though it did not have the same light texture. It was also coarser than the oil and butter cakes and possessed more air pockets. The salt present in the margarine made the cake a bit too salty, but overall the cake was decent on most fronts. I would not say this cake was bad, but neither would I say it was great.
I am not willing to give up lovely, creamy butter in my cakes but the results of these tests inspire me to replace some of the butter with oil in the future. I don’t have to fear that the oil will adversely affect the taste of the cake and the benefit of moistness is highly desirable. Take a look at your cake recipe today and perhaps give another fat a chance.
This is so great. Something I have always wanted to try but never took the time. I’m shocked with the oil results and can’t wait to sub some of it out sometime! Great job!
Thanks for doing this. I’ve always wondered. I have a recipe that uses shortening and it’s delicious, so I thought shortening would be the best but I like the oil cake. So, could you use half butter, half oil? How would you use both? I really want the moisture in the cake but keep the flavor and color from butter.
I have had the same experience with using oil in my cakes too.
I am wondering if you substitute equal amounts of oil to butter in a recipe?
Did you try using 1/2 oil and 1/2 butter…. maybe something to try.
Thanks for the great information!
Very interesting! We only ever use butter – so it’s interesting to see the result of other fats. Thanks for sharing with us!
°̩ wonder what result ul get if u go half/half , butter η oil ? ..interesting …hmmmmm .. Mayb I’ll giv it a shot
I have tried to sub oil in a vanilla butter cake and it did not turn out at all. Did you make a 1=1 substitution in this comparison? How you were able to make it work makes no sense to me – it would throw the baker’s percentages of your recipe off and since oil is a liquid fat, not a solid fat it should not sub at equal ratios. It should have also completely change the structure of your cake into a more greasy sponge. Or so my experiments and research have lead me… would love more info on how you did it though, especially since you are suggesting that people can easily sub these different fats in their recipes with no issues! Or are you using a chiffon recipe?
I’m just a beginner, so I’m wondering how to substitute? If my recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter, how much oil do I use?
Thank you so much for doing this! Fascinating!
Totally interesting!! I never would have thought the results would turn out like this! Thank you so much!!
Very interesting, but you omitted two (at least) items that would be important for replicating your results. First, what type of oil and other fats did you use (e.g., “vegetable” oil can be many things). Second, how did you determine the equivalent amounts to use (weight would probably be best but even so, the different fats have different desities and dissolved gases which could have influenced the results). I will try a similar experiment with scones and if you send me your e-mail address I can can provide the results.
I love butter!
That was really great information. Thank you for taking what I am sure was a lot of time to share that great information.
I do a butter / veg oil combo. Gives you the great butter flavor, and nice moisture from the oil.
sounds fascinating, I too am very interested in how you substituted
))) please tell me so I can try it! thank you x
I’ve always wondered if butter is really better… and it looks like you’ve been wondering too!
While I personally can’t answer all of your questions – I’d like to take a moment to thank Summer for all of the time and effort she put into this article. It has us all talking!