When baking with butter:
Room-temperature butter in the cake batter is one of the biggest cake baking mistakes. In fact, butter must be below 68°F to trap air molecules and build structure. Otherwise, the fat will liquefy and the cake will be flat.
To get “cool” butter:
Cut the chilled butter into chunks and let it sit in a bowl for 5 minutes before beating.
When mixing cake batter:
You cannot overbeat the eggs, sugar and butter, but you can overbeat the flour. If you do, gluten will form and you will be making a quick bread instead of a layer cake. Beat the flour just until there are no visible signs of dry flour, but not until the batter is completely smooth.
Cake flour:
Cake flour is milled from soft wheat that has a lower gluten content and higher starch content than all-purpose flour. It helps to ensure a fluffy texture in cakes and pastries. A substitute for cake flour is to use all-purpose flour, but reduce the amount by 2 tablespoons per cup.
