Many recipes I have say to 'spoon' the cake mix into the tin. I was just wondering if there is any difference between 'spooning' the mixture in or just pouring it?


Normally, you spoon cake mixes in because you need to be very careful to preserve all of the air you have incorporated into the mix. This air is very important to the structure and overall appeal of the cake.

It's not to say that you can't pour in the mix, it is just not best practice.

Quite frankly, there are some cakes where it won't really matter. If you are baking a standard Duncan Hines or other store bought mix, it doesn't really matter. Those have so many emulsifiers and extenders that you would have to work at deflating them.

However, if you are doing scratch cake mixes, you have to treat them like a nice man treats his wife, that is - very gently. Very, very gently. Hence, always spoon the mix.

Hope this helps

  • 2
    It seems like this wouldn't matter for all scratch cakes either - some batters when spooned pretty much just pour out of the spoon instead of the mixing bowl. – Cascabel Nov 8 '11 at 15:45

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