Cakes

It may seem that there is little logic to the enormous number of cake recipes, but in fact most cakes can be broken down into two basic types: butter cakes, which are made by emulsifying butter in various ways, and foam cakes, which are generally lighter and leavened by beaten eggs.

The most common butter cake is the pound cake, made by whipping butter with sugar, beating in eggs one at a time, and then working in flour just long enough to rid the batter of lumps. Butter cake recipes generally include some kind of chemical leavener, such as baking powder or baking soda, or sometimes call for separating eggs to incorporate air. Another kind of butter cake, called a dump cake or high-ratio cake, contains a high percentage of sugar to other ingredients (hence the name high-ratio) and is made by working sliced butter into flour until the butter breaks up into small pieces and then adding the liquid ingredients, which always include eggs, one-third at a time.