Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

In China people are used to eating a very soft and airy cake dough, like a sponge cake. But for decorating a cake, the dough is just too soft. Do you have any advice how to make it with quite a lot of air inside but still strong enough to layer and ganache it ?

Hi silja.zhang

To incorporate a lot of air into cake batter in the creaming method, the sugar, butter and eggs must be creamed together in stages for at least 10 minutes so the mixture becomes a very smooth shiny emulsion. The flour and leavening (if using) are gently folded in to the emulsion so as not to lose any of the incorporated air.
Take a look at Mrs Jones’ vanilla cake tutorial. Site members have used the recipe for carving, layering with ganache and covering with fondant. The recipe is here, click on the red ingredients tab:

10’’ Round Deep Vanilla Sponge

Mrs Jones has other recipes in the baking section of this site, however not all are suitable for covering with fondant as they stand. If you have questions about Mrs Jones’ recipes, she can be contacted directly here:
http://www.mrsjonescakes.co.uk/
Recipes which use oil or shortening as a replacement fats for butter are always much softer. Inclusion of certain ingredients like buttermilk will also produce a soft crumb. There are hundreds of recipes online which can be googled. It’s a case of trying lots of them until you find one you really like. Hope this helps.

Hi madeitwithlove,

thanks so much for your answer. Tried the whole day different recipes and I am getting closer to the result I want. Thanks again!

You’re welcome silja zhang and I hope you soon have the cake texture you desire. In the UK we have an idiom which says ‘more power to your elbow’ here is the translation:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/more-power-to-your-elbow
Happy Baking!! x