When I look at recipes for the above and may be some other recipes - it sometimes mentions butter - now I only use easy spread butter on my bread etc. Does the butter mean the "hard" butter or can you use the easy spread. Thanks
It means 'hard' butter.It is the fat content that matters, easy spreads are not full fat they can be as little as 49% fat, the rest is water. So using 'soft spread' will mean you have too little fat in the cake mix.You can use full fat margarine ( such as 'Stork for Cakes') in place of butter.
Some of the tubs have a tick list on the pack, worth looking to see if yours has. I use stork for cakes which is soft and beats in quicker which I prefer to the hard one.