Cakes Without a Food Processor

Asked by brijesh.m. Answered on 28th March 2015

Full question

Hey! I am from India and a huge fan. I have seen that Nigella uses a food processor in lot of her baking recipes to prepare the batter which is not something I see very often. I don't have a food processor or a hand mixer but I have immersion hand blender. Can I use this instead?

Our answer

Nigella uses a food processor in some of her cake recipes mostly for convenience as the cake batter can be made in one step. A hand/immersion blender can be tricky as it may be difficult to process large quantities easily, and mixing denser items like butter and sugar evenly and successfully could be a challenge.

However the cakes that are made with a food processor can also be made with a bowl and a wooden spoon, and an energetic cook! For the cakes you will need to first beat together the butter and sugar until the mixture is paler in colour and looks slightly fluffy. Then beat in the eggs a little at a time. Finally gently mix in the flour. If there is additional liquid, such as buttermilk, it is best to add the liquid and dry ingredients in 2 to 3 batches, alternating between wet and dry. Cakes made with oil are slightly easier to mix and you can beat together the wet ingredients and then fold in the dry ones.