Which method requires creaming fats and sugars before combining with the other ingredients?

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Creaming fats with sugars at the start aerates the batter, giving you a lighter, tender crumb. When butter (or another fat) and sugar are beaten together, the sugar helps break up the fat and traps tiny air pockets. Those air pockets expand during baking, contributing rise and a fluffy texture without relying on a lot of leavening soda or powder. After the fats and sugars are creamed, eggs are added to keep the mixture smooth and stable, and then dry and wet ingredients are folded in gradually to maintain that light structure.

Other methods skip this initial aeration step. They mix all ingredients together at once or rely on different techniques that don’t create the same amount of trapped air, so the resulting texture is typically denser or different in crumb.