Cake recipe issue - margarine, butter etc

[HeatherFeather]

I don't usually cook with margarine - I am a butter fan. I will sometimes use shortening if a recipe really requires it. However, most of the time I don't ever buy sticks of margarine and use butter instead.

Well - I have a vintage pound cake recipe that calls for a stick of butter, a stick of margarine and a 1/2 cup of shortening. This recipe won a prize, so I know the recipe is likely to be a good one. I am not sure I want to mess with the successful recipe by changing the margarine for more butter. I am thinking there must have been some reason this lady used all three types of fats. Butter for flavor and richness, shortening for making it poof up. But why the margarine?

I am torn between buying box of margarine and trying it out or just going with 2 sticks of butter plus the shortening.

Any thoughts?

[elsie]

Personally, I just go with the butter. I'm a fan of butter too. Margarine has a slightly different taste than butter so maybe she was going for that.

OR she only had one stick of butter left and threw in a stick of margarine to compensate. Then when this person won the prize using those ingredients, she was silently shocked by her creation. Then she smiled and annouced to everyone that she had been making this little ole cake for years. It happens!

[Mary]

I have no idea what the margarine would add, Heather. Both butter and margarine have about the same amount of fat and water (although margarine is lower in saturated fats and has trans-fats, which butter does not so far as I know). Butter has a slightly lower melting point. But how these would make a difference in a cake, as compared to a cookie, is beyond me.

Use of margarine would reduce the cost, of course, but it would also reduce the buttery flavor of pound cake that is the desired end. So, I would ditch the margarine and go with butter and shortening.

It's not called a pound cake without reason, after all. Add one pound of butter to one pound of flour to one pound of eggs and one pound of sugar -- and you've got another pound somewhere on your body that you'd rather not have it.

Let us know how it turns out?

[HeatherFeather]

Hmmm... sounds like I will be ok with the butter then. I don't care one bit about fat/calories/carbs when it comes to desserts like this so more butter is perfectly fine

I won't be eating more than a slice, the cake will be for the family.

[Sue]

The only thing that could possibly happen is if the fat content changes. Some margarines have way too much water in them to be reliable for baking.