Which is the best cake method?

Creaming Method - cream the butter by beating it with sugar, then beat in the eggs and fold it into the flour.

Whisking Method - for a fatless sponge you need to use more eggs. Beat the sugar into the eggs until it forms a ribbon like effect.

Rubbing Method - Rub the butter into the flour and sugar to form a breadcrumb-like texture, and then beat in the eggs.

Melting Method - Melt the butter, stir it into the flour and sugar, then beat in the egg.

Separating Method - separate the eggs, beat the yolks with sugar for a ribbon-like structure, and then fold into the flour. Whisk the whites to soft peaks and fold in.

by Bryony Harrison

For a quick and easy cake, I'm a fan of the all-in-one method. Pretty much, those cakes that you can put all of the ingredients together into a mixing bowl and mix to create the cake batter in seconds! Soft margarine works best in these kinds of cakes.

For example, for a quick all-in-one chocolate cake, place 175g of margarine, 175g of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of water, 3 tablespoons of cocoa, 175g of self raising flour, 50 g of ground almonds, and 3 large eggs into a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer or wooden spoon to combine, then bake!

by Charlotte Jain

I generally use the creaming method, but I think that the different methods have different applications, depending on your intended results. For general cakes and cupcakes though, I do tend to stick to creaming.

Of course then there are the times when I end up forgetting a step and just add everything in any which order.

by Natasha Stewart

I'm definitely an all in one fan especially when you're cooking with kids. It keeps them interested and you seem to get to the end result quicker.

by Claire Winlow