Why can cake batter sit overnight (or two!) in fridge?

I have a great recipe for Guinness chocolate cake that I've been using to make cupcakes. A chef had virtually the same recipe and told me he loves it because (1 he's not a pastry chef and 2) he can make it in adv and bake it after a few days in te fridge. I was thinking it might be double acting baking powder that would do it but is it really that active to make it work? My cupcakes came out perfectly fine after letting the batter sit 2 night in the fridge. I'm super curious if there's something else that make it such a durable batter... Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance!

Lynnht
  • Posted by: Lynnht
  • July 20, 2012
  • 8524 views
  • 1 Comment

1 Comment

Hilarybee July 20, 2012
Sounds to me like there is a combination of factors.

Guinness is fermented and has carbonation, which acts as a kind of leavening in the baked good. The actual leavening agent- baking powder (are you using baking pyrophosphate?) will actually degrade the longer it sits in the fridge. I've found that eggier batters and oil based batters will perform well when refrigerated.

I'd assume that his cake contains oil, not butter and has two or three eggs?
 
Recommended by Food52