Following a recipe for a triple-layer cake is a bit like using a set of blueprints to build a house: If you have a clear vision of the structure, it’s much easier to follow the plans, and if you know what kind of cake you’re baking, the recipe’s individual steps make more sense. Of course, you’re always aiming to bake a light, tender cake that’s full of flavor, but it’s easier to get the results you want when you’re familiar with basic cake categories.
Most of the cakes in this book are butter cakes, meaning the first step of the recipe involves creaming butter and sugar together. Then the additional ingredients (usually eggs and flour) are incorporated. The final addition to a butter cake is its leavening agent—either baking powder or baking soda or a combination of the two. Layer cakes are usually butter cakes, especially if they’re baked at home from scratch. As a rule, butter cakes have a fine, tender crumb, moist and delectable. It’s the paradigm most of us think of when we hear the word cake.
Foam cakes include genoise, sponge, and angel food cakes. The rising action of foam cakes derives mainly from the whipped eggs included in their batters, rather than from leavenings like baking powder or baking soda. Foam cakes have a higher ratio of eggs to flour than butter cakes do, and a spongier texture.
Chiffon cakes are a kind of hybrid of a butter cake and a foam cake (and are often considered foam cakes). They contain both whipped eggs and leavening, and they generally rely on oil rather than butter. The texture of a chiffon cake is a kind of cross between the two types of cake as well: A chiffon cake has the moistness of a butter cake but the airiness of a foam cake.