For the life of me I cannot make a good scratch cake just using cake flour.  At first I thought it was because I wasn't sifting into the measuring cup, but even after I did that the cake is super dense and gummy.  I did the reverse creaming and try to mix as little as possible on low.  Is that the problem, so I need to put the spurs to it?  Everything I read about cake flour says it will make a fluffier and tender crumbed cake - I keep getting the opposite.  What am I doing wrong?

Can you post recipe?  That will help the chemistry of baking people help you.

AI'm no expert, but from what I understand, reverse creaming method doesn't always necessarily go hand in hand with " trying to mix as little as possible....."

5 C cake flour

3 1/3 C sugar

2 1/2 T. baking soda

2 t. salt

1 C milk

1 1/3 C butter

5 whole eggs

1 T. vanilla

I don't know much about cake chemistry, but could it be that the baking soda should be baking powder?

Oops, you are right!

I typed that wrong, should read 2T + 1 tsp baking powder and 1/2 t baking soda.  For some reason I added them together, but in the cake I did it the right way.

A

As already stated, reverse creaming does not mean mix as little as possible, you can beat it on pretty high for a good while until you add the liquid anyway, but the added air from beating it well adds to the lightness of the cakes.

AOkay, so I spent some time reading Baking Illustrated and got the answer to my problem. The batter does require some vigorous beating before the batter goes into the pans. I like how Baking Illustrated gives you all the different methods they tried before arriving at their final recipe which is very detailed to the seconds of mixing.

That also seems like a lot of flour and sugar in the recipe itself. Try it with the extra mixing, but it could be that there's too much of those two ingredients.

I finally tried FromScratchSF's recipe.  Wow... so that's what vanilla cake is SUPPOSED to taste and feel like in your mouth!  It was so soft and velvety and delicious, just beautiful.  I will be using my scale a whole lot more now.