Originally Posted by melrae1

Hello! I am new to cake baking and decorating, and just really confused on "do not overmix" or "do not undermix" in recipes. How can you tell if you overmix cake batter or icing. I tried my 1st cake from scratch last week and it said do not overmix. I was so worried about overmixing, but there where no time guidelines as to how long to mix it. It didn't turn out well, flavor was good, cake looked terrible. Yesterday I made my 1st WASC and I thought it was great, my mother tried it and said it was dry, like I didn't mix the dry ingredients enough. So any ideas would greatly help me. I've searched CC and online and cannot really find anything that specifies each. Thanks for your help!!

To avoid overmixing you have to know what ingredients do what. Egg yolks, sugar, milk=tenderizers. Flour, egg whites= tougheners. Sugar is a liquid, eggyolks are fat, milk liquid. Flour, and egg whites because of the protiens they have in them. Butter is also a tenderizer because of the fat.

When creaming the butter, and sugar, you want to look for volume, and a change to a white color. You can't overmix. When adding eggs you add eggs one at a time till incorporated. It's hard to over mix at this stage also. Milk add slowly alternating with flour do this in thirds. This is where you have to be careful. You want to mix till the flour has soaked up all the liquid to make a smooth batter. This is where the overmixing can take place. If you only mix till the flour, and milk are incorporated then you won't overmix. Also remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Mike