Oil/butter/marg in cakes

[TrillianAstra]

I have some recipes that say butter/marg, and others that ask for oil.

What's the difference? How does it affect the finished cake?

What if I ran out of butter/marg, could I use oil and make the cake anyway? If so how much? Or would it be just wrong?

I think butter gives a richer taste but it lots of recipes margarine is just as good.

I use margarine for everyday baking and butter for special occasions. In some recipes I would only use butter - shortbread for example.

I have used oil in recipes too but they are all ones that are egg-free for allergic dd1.
They do seem oilier. I think you could tell the difference (or maybe its my baking)

I have a muffin recipe and one that is for a v dense chocolate cake that use oil and no butter. They still have eggs in though.

(I pretty much treat butter and marg as interchangeable).

I prefer butter but only because I think the taste is slightly nicer than margarine; although there's not much in it really.

I'm probably wrong abiut this, but if you use oil or completely melted butter or marg when the recipe doesn't ask for it, wouldn't that affect the texture?

I usually start off cakes by creaming together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. If the fat was liguid, I'm not sure that bit would work too well. But I haven't tried it to know for sure.

So the answer is - "oil is for different kinds of cakes, don't mix and match"?

Fair enough, I thought it might be. Maybe I could look up a recipe for lemon cake made with oil

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lemondrizzlemuffins_10460

How about this?

You've got me interested now!

Just found this lemon cake recipe which uses oil.

Looks good felicity. I miss normal baking. I wish dd would outgrow her egg allergy.

Lemon drizzle muffins - looks good, thanks!

butter is best,though marg is cheaper..

oil...different kind of cake (often packet ones)

..hmm..butter...

sometimes i soften butter in the microwave with the sugar, and it goes runny if over done - still makes a good cake. though i don't do this i'm making sth that really has to go well.

suiledonne, how old is your DD?

My DD is nearly 6 and has always been allergic to egg (and dairy & nuts) but last week I tried her with a cake made with just one egg and she was fine - I was so happy.

Just need to try her with some dairy now