Ribbon stage

Ribbon stage is a necessary step in cake recipes that call for beating eggs and sugar together until a thick, voluminous batter is created, prior to adding the flour and any other ingredients. Cakes that use this mixing method are most frequently sponge cakes.

In these recipes, whole eggs and sugar are beaten together, or the eggs are separated — the egg yolks and sugar are beaten to ribbon stage, while the egg whites are reserved, whipped to stiff peaks, then folded into the batter for additional lightness and volume.

In some cases the sugar isn't added until after the eggs have been beaten, and occasionally the eggs alone will be beaten to ribbon stage. Regardless of how a recipe gets there, however, the visual clues remain the same. 

The ribbon stage specifically refers to the thick, pale, foam-like batter created when eggs and sugar are beaten together. To ensure the batter is properly whipped, directions will tell you it should fall in ribbons.

How to tell if ribbon stage has been reached?

Use some key visual clues to recognize when you’ve succeeded: 

Ribbon Stage
Ribbon Stage
  • Texture: The mixture should have thickened significantly, becoming almost foam-like. This is where the “ribbon” part comes in: when you lift the mixer attachment or whisk from the mixture, the batter should fall back in thick trails. The ribbon lines will stay suspended on top of the batter, remaining clearly visible on the surface for a few moments before slowly disappearing. 
  • Color: The mixture should also have become considerably lighter and be a very pale yellow. 
  • Volume: The eggs and sugar will have noticeably expanded, increasing the volume of the batter (often triple the original size). This is because of all the (super-important) air that’s been added to the mixture from beating. 
Tips

Temperature matters. It’s also best to start with room-temperature eggs. If a recipe calls for such, don’t ignore it! While beating, the protein in the eggs traps air bubbles. These bubbles expand in the hot oven, which is how you wind up with a light and airy cake. Room-temperature eggs trap air better than those that are cold, meaning you’ll wind up with more volume in your batter and fluffier texture in your baked cake