Keys to baking success: Time and quality ingredients

I recently received an e-mail from Margaret Darby, who had questions about baking cakes. Margaret wants her cakes to be smooth, moist and velvety looking, not grainy and coarse. She wanted to know how long to cream butter and sugar before adding other ingredients to make batter and if it is wise to cream sugar, butter and eggs together or to follow specific recipe directions about when to add eggs.