Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi. When making a sponge, or any cake with the creaming for that matter, no matter how careful I am, using softened butter, adding the eggs, whole with a spoon of flour or a bit at a time with a sprinkling of flour, the mix always looks slightly separated to me. Can you post a photograph of ‘curdled’ and ‘not curdled’. When I watch TV bakers they always say “it doesn’t matter that much, it just means your cake will not be as light”. It always sounds a bit condescending.

Hi doublel

Curdled mixture looks a bit like scrambled eggs and usually occurs when a recipe asks for lots of eggs or if they have not been beaten sufficiently into the sugar and butter. It is a result of adding liquid (eggs) to fat (butter) which separates the mix. Adding a table spoon of flour after each egg can bring it back to a smooth emulsion but not always! Use beaten eggs little at a time for more control over the mixing. If you’re using a hand mixer try drizzling the egg to the side of the mixing bowl and beating it first. Rotate the bowl while mixing and gradually incorporate the egg into the main mix before adding more. The mix should look like mayonnaise, creamy and shiny. When using a stand mixer add only small amounts of egg until you see a glossy shine then add more. If it curdles add a spoon full of flour as you’ve been doing and mix on low until just incorporated. At this stage fast mixing will cause the flour to activate the gluten which will make for a heavy bread like cake. A curdled mix won’t really spoil your cake, as the tv bakers say it will just not be quite as light.
There may be some information which you might find helpful here http://www.cakeflix.com/blog/baking-
the-perfect-cake-why-things-go-wrong

Many thanks for your help. Patience it seems is required – it’s a virtue I’m told !!