When you bake a cake, the ingredients almost always include flour, eggs, sugar, butter, but when you cook with cake mix, you're almost always instructed to add vegetable oil. What does the oil do in the mix? (And I know there are some made-from-scratch cakes that use oil, like Hummingbird Cake, but certainly not the majority.)
2007-03-29 07:50:32 · 7 answers · asked by Capote99 2 in Food & Drink ➔ Cooking & Recipes
Not only does the oil help to make the cake moist, but oil is a binder. It helps all of the ingredients come together. If you didn't have some type of binder, the cake mix would not come together in the consistency of cake batter. If you don't want to use oil, or you'd like to be a little more health conscious, you can use applesauce (as long as it compliments the recipe).
2007-03-29 08:00:06 · answer #1 · answered by sweet_heather83 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you can also substitute applesauce for the oil, if you are trying to be healthy
another cool trick: use soda with a cake mix instead of water, eggs and oil. Just mix the cake mix and a 12 oz. can of soda. Use coke with a chocolate cake mix, sprite with a white mix, you get the picture. Sounds crazy, but it makes a moist delicious cake.
2007-03-29 07:59:54 · answer #2 · answered by georgiagrits1 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Oil helps keep the cake tender and moist where oil doesn't readily evaporate when baked unlike the water based ingredients.
If you leave the oil out, the cake will still be good. The changes can be pretty subtle depending upon how much oil was omitted.
2007-03-29 07:53:10 · answer #3 · answered by lots_of_laughs 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Oil is what keeps it all together. Without it...the cake crumbles easier. BUT...I never use oil in my cake mixes. For white or yellow cake mixes I use unsweetened applesauce (sweetened makes the cake too sweet) and in chocolate cake mixes I use canned pumpkin. Neither one of them compromise the taste of the cakes in the least and you cut out most of the fat.
2007-03-29 08:15:37 · answer #4 · answered by saved_by_grace 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most of my cakes require oil or mayonnaise. They help make a tender crumb and a moist cake. I think cake mix manufacturer's do it for the same reason.
2007-03-29 07:56:06 · answer #5 · answered by Tom ツ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
helps retain the moisture in the cake
2007-03-29 08:00:41 · answer #6 · answered by dianemelloniemarlenejerryginder 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Moisture !! If you were to use water, you'd end up with a very sweet, dry loaf of bread !
I know... I accidently used water once... oops
2007-03-29 08:02:37 · answer #7 · answered by mariner31 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋