My friends over at Orson Gygi did a great comparison of old and new baking soda. You can catch the entire test HERE. When you add butter and sugar together, you want to mix them on a medium-high speed to get a light and fluffy texture. However, once you start adding your dry ingredients which include the leavening agents , you want to turn your mixer to low speed and mix just until the dry ingredients are incorporated.
Your cake layers will sink and have a dense texture if you overmix your cake batter at this point. I think most people are surprised to find out that the type of pans they use to bake their cakes in makes a huge difference in how the cake layers bake. For a good price point, I think Fat Daddio does this the best. I get a lot of questions about bake even strips.
However, if you use them and love them, by all means, continue! I long ago ditched box mixes in pursuit of melt-in-your-mouth, to-die-for flavor combinations, fillings and textures. I believe cake must be decadent, life-changing and worthy of celebration! Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. These tips are so helpful! I always wondered why my cakes taste stale when I defrost the cake in room temperature straight from the freezer…I never keep the cake wrapped in cling film while defrosting!
Skip to content. If you live in a humid climate, keep your dry ingredients in the freezer so they stay dry. If you forgot to add the eggs at the right time and then mixed them in later, you may pay the price with a fallen cake.
What to do: Read the recipe all the way through before you begin baking. Create a clean work area with all your ingredients pre-cut, prepared and measured. Having everything organized ahead of time will help you keep calm and follow the recipe. What to do: Check your oven periodically with a heatproof thermometer to make sure your dial is accurate. Pro Tip Most cakes bake best in the F range give or take 25 degrees in either direction.
If your recipe calls for something much higher or lower, it should explain why. Test it by inserting a skewer or cake tester. If it comes out mostly clean, that means your cake is fully baked. The term sounds more complicated than it is. Be sure to cream your butter mixture before adding other ingredients to prevent an unwanted result. You need leaveners, like baking soda and powder , to make your cake rise.
But too much can cause your cake to rise super-fast in the oven, then fall once you pull it out. What to do: Be careful when measuring your baking soda and powder quantities, and make sure not to get them confused. I also share some tips on how to can salvage cake layers that sank.
This creates a doughy, dense texture in the center of your cake layer. Bake your cake layers a couple minutes longer! The cake is ready when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs. The third possible culprit is too much leavening agent, or the wrong type.
Too much leavening agent like baking soda or powder can cause a cake to rise too high too quickly. The gas from the leavening agents builds up and escapes before the cake bakes through in the center. This causes the center to collapse and makes your cake layers sink in the middle. Always level the top of the spoon with either the top of the box or a knife to make sure you are using the right amount.
Baking soda is about 3x more potent than baking powder, and they are not interchangeable. Be sure to carefully read the amount of leavening agents a recipe calls for, and measure them precisely with a teaspoon or digital scale. There also is a chance that the recipe might be bad!
Sadly not all recipes are formulated correctly, and sometimes this can also be the problem. If you try making a certain recipe a few times and your cake is still sinking in the middle, you may want to try a new recipe.
If you need to rotate your pans, be sure to carefully close your oven door after doing so. Or if you want to sneak a peek at your cake layers, try to just look through the oven door rather than opening it. Another culprit is your oven!
Unfortunately not all ovens bake accurately. You can run into some serious problems if your oven runs hot or cold. For example, say your oven runs a bit cool. This might make you think the cake is baked through. Test your oven temperature with an oven thermometer.
If your runs cold, adjust the temperature of your oven to ensure it bakes at the actual temperature the recipe calls for. Or if your oven runs hot, adjust it down as needed.
Using a different pan size than a recipe calls for can drastically change the bake time required. It can cause your cake layers to be quite a bit thicker or thinner than the recipe intends.
I recommend using flower nails if you need to bake cake layers that are larger than a recipe calls for. When I bake large cake layers or sheet cakes, I like to place a few flower nails evenly apart in the center of each pan.
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