I recently read an article in the CC mag and the 'dump' method of making cake batter. You just literally dump all of the ingredients in the bowl and mix for a couple of minutes.

Well that got My interest.

So today I tried it.  Used a butter cake scratch recipe that usually had the normal creaming etc.

I threw everything in the bowl and mixed for 2 minutes.  Made standard size cupcakes.

 

even though there were tiny bits of butter visible in the batter, it cooked up normally, in the same amount of time, tasted the same. I wouldn't have know the difference and it sure saved me a lot of time. It was a great surprise although I don't know why it would be, that's exactly how to make a box mix.

I must add that it was a small paragraph in a longer article, don't remember the name of it.

AA nicer name is the all in one method!

AI've always used the all in one method (only ever baked from scratch) and my cakes have always turned out great. I must say I did feel vindicated when I read the CC article as I was fed up with people telling me I should cream the butter & sugar as it's better. As long as your ingredients are all room temperature the all in one method works fine. :)

This is very very interesting- now I have to work up the courage to try it!

If the all in one works though why is every recipe so detailed about what to put in when?

A

I should add the caveat that I'm only talking about sponge-type cakes. Things like macarons I always follow the proper stages. When you start doing all in one, I think you get a feel for which recipes you can get away with using it on. Like anything it's a fun science experiment!

I'm now realising why I was confused when people said boxed-mix was quicker than scratch, for me it's not as I use all in one anyway :)

Got it, thanks

I started doing this a couple weeks ago with my cupcakes. Such a time saver. I too had the little butter pieces, but they turned out great! I'm done with the step by step junk! haha!