Hi Karen,
The two stage mixing method is a method in which many pastry chefs use to make cakes, instead of the creaming method. This method is popular in recipes found in the Cake Bible book by Rose (not sure of her last name). Basically, you take your milk, eggs and extracts and put in a bowl. You will then take your dry ingredients in a bowl and blend together. To the dry ingredients you will add room temperature butter and mix to moist crumb consistency. Once that is done you will then add half milk mixture, mix about a min. Then add other half of milk mixture and mix. You will bake as directed. This method produce a tender, moist cake. To get more info., you should google it, especially, if I left anything out. Hope that help.
