On Broken Batters

Reader Silviu asks: if your batter “breaks”, does it actually make any difference to the final product? That’s an excellent question, as it often happens that layer cake, muffin and tea bread batters take on a “broken” look during mixing, by which I mean a grainy appearance. That’s caused by very small droplets of fat floating around in the mixture. Though some bakers I’ve worked with insist that it’s a defect in the batter, I’ve never found a grainy texture to inhibit either rising or a good texture. To me it’s just one of those things that happens from time to time, especially in very buttery layer cake batters. I say: don’t worry about it.