Cake Methodology 101 - Jenni Field's PMAT Method

Last month we delved into the creaming method of making cakes. This month we want to learn about Jenni Field’s Dead Easy PMAT method.

1. In the bowl of your trusty stand mixer, whisk all the dry ingredients (flour, leaveners, salt, sugar, cocoa [if making chocolate cake], any dry spices) together Very Very Well.

2. Whisk all of the wet ingredients (eggs, milk/water/coffee/whatever, vanilla, other liquid flavorings) together in a large pitcher. Whisk them really well so the eggs don’t just hang out down at the bottom of the pitcher.

3. Make sure your butter is coolish and soft-but-not-greasy.

4. Throw the butter in with the dry ingredients and mix until Somewhat Crumbly. This gives you the tender portion of your cake–coating a lot of the flour with straight-up fat will prohibit Undue Gluten Formation. You actually have a little room to play here. More mixing at the stage will give you a Very Tender Cake. If you want to maintain structural integrity, mix until butter is well incorporated but the mixture hasn’t gotten clumpy and cookie dough-looking.

5. Pour in 1/3 of the wet ingredients. Start on low, and then mix and mix on medium for about 1 minute. Scrape bowl as necessary. The addition of the liquid (milk/water/whatever) in addition to the water in the egg whites and Serious Agitation allows for some gluten to form, making sure your cake doesn’t Fall Apart from Too Much Tenderness.

6. Add the next 1/3 on low and mix until just blended. Ditto with the last 1/3. Scrape the bowl, then crank the mixer up to medium for about 3 seconds to make sure everything is Homogeneous.

Although it looks like six steps, I don’t count the measuring part, so it’s really just three steps, like this:

1. Mix in the butter.

2. Mix in 1/3 of the wet and beat for a minute or so.

3. Mix in the rest of the wet in two additions.

Oh, I measured all the dry ingredients into my mixer bowl by standing the bowl on my trusty scale and hitting tare (zeroing out) in between each measurement. I did the same for the wet ingredients. Seriously, if you aren’t weighing your ingredients, just do it. It’s so much easier than all that spooning and scraping and rustling-about-in-the-gadget-drawer-to-find-the-2/3-cup-measure Nonsense. I’m just saying…

http://pastrychefonline.com/2009/06/08/easy-mixing-method/

Give it a try and tell Happy Campers how you’ve made out!

Also, check out her video for making “browned butter”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FepCmfqkXZo&list=UUEPw6bngupajspqzcuXlwFw