keeping cake batter

[rzn]

how long can you let cake batter sit?

I bought some mini muffin pans to make tiny little cup cakes, but a batch of cake batter will probably take about 4 bakings. I have no intention of purchasing that many of these pans, I won't use them that often.

So how long can I let things like cake & muffin batters sit before all the poof is out of the leavening & can I just add extra before I cook the later batches to make up for it? Or do I even need to?

[mudbug]

I wouldn't recommend letting the batter sit for too long. It would be better to cut your recipe in half. Or save the dry ingredients and add the wet to mix before baking. Or bake all the muffins, freeze them, then pull them out to thaw in the fridge, then to room temp as you want to eat them.

[rzn]

I'll use the muffins all at once, I just can't bake them in a single batch. Even at 1/2 batch some of the batter will have to sit for at least a little while. I bought 2 trays, which would probably do 1/4 of a regular batch of cake batter, but that means at least 1/2 will be sitting for 15-25min dep on how long the first batch bakes & it takes me to refill to do the next one, and so on.

Any idea if the batter can sit for 1/2hour, hour, or if it will be shot, or if I can add add'l leaving to what is the second part when it is time to bake that?

[mudbug]

Ah... I didn't know if you were meaning storing the batter in the fridge for future use... I wouldn't worry about the batter too much then. Should be fine. Report back it the results are not what you're wanting.

[Erik]

I think it would mostly depend on what kind of leavening the batter had. I've worked in shops where the lead baker would decide he didn't have time to pan up the cake he just mixed , so he would just cover the bowl and toss it in the fridge.

[rzn]

thank you..

[momoreg]

I do that with some batters. Some can even be frozen, but they do come out a bit denser. If your only leavener is BP, go ahead and refrigerate, but beware, if it contains butter, your batter will thicken up!! Heat will activate the BP.

[cookieguy]

Most commercial BPs contain 3 ingredients - acid(s), baking soda and starch. BPs can be slow, fast or dual acting (two acids). Starch is just a filler to separate the others. The acids neutralize the soda (sodium bicarbonate) till very little of either is left with the resultant being carbon dioxide gas liberated which leavens the batter. If the BP has one acid it is single acting and can be slow or fast dependent on the acid used or the reaction rate of the acid used. There are many acids to choose from in addition to acids already occuring in the batter due to other ingredients. In most cases the added BP will overwhelm any natural acids. In double acting BPs usually the fast acting (upon mixing) is the MCP (Monocalcium phosphate) while the slow acting (heat of the oven) is some form of SAPP (Sodium acid pyro-phosphate). There are fast acting BPs which only activate in the oven; the acid would probably be SALP (Sodium aluminum phosphate). Having the batter lay around for an hour shouldn't be a problem.

[rzn]

thank you.

[AprilB]

It will at least stall the leavening process while you're waiting for the current run of cup cakes to bake and cool.

I made up to 150 each mini cakes, tarts, tres leches, ... for our Sunday Buffet. I'd make the whole batch intended and between baking runs I'd put the batter first in the freezer for a few minutes then the walk in. Especially useful for light ladyfinger type cakes.

April