Welcome to the brand new Her Campus Leeds baking blog! So, I’ve compiled some of the most common baking mistakes so you all can bake like pros next time you decide to don that pinny and dust that work surface.
So, have you ever wondered what makes a cake rise? In bread, it’s yeast, but in other baked goods it is either baking powder or bicarbonate of soda. Most baking mistakes come from this element of the process, the rise; it’s either too much or too little. Here are some ways to avoid that pitfall.
1. Do not overfill the tin with cake batter! If you overfill your tin and the cake rises, the excess batter will drop to the bottom of the oven and make a mess. If you don’t believe me, see below!
2. Do not overmix the cake batter. Your goal when making your cake batter is to add air to the mixture, which can be done by beating eggs or eggs whites only. However, if you overmix the cake batter after adding the eggs your cake will fall. Flour contains gluten and overbeating the flour produces more gluten which produces a tight network around the trapped air in the batter. This means that the texture of the cake is similar to that of a pound cake and not fluffy and spongy.
3. Another way to avoid this baking problem is by sifting the flour and mixing the batter just until all ingredients are combined and you no longer see any white powder. Sifting the flour aerates the flour and disperses it better in the batter. This creates a looser network of gluten which creates a fluffier texture. It also eliminates large lumps of flour or any bugs in the flour. This is especially important in countries with high humidity. The same principle goes for cocoa or baking powder. Some recipes call for flour to be sifted after measuring, other tell you to sift the flour before measuring. Stick to what the recipe tells you to do. If you don’t have a fancy sifter, a simple stir will have the same effect. If you whisk the flour to incorporate the other dry ingredients you are killing two birds with one stone.
4. Finally, even though you want air in your mixture, you don’t want large pockets of air in your cake batter. This will lead to air tunnels and will prevent your cake from rising. It may even cause your cake to collapse later on and split layers in the cake. An old tip is to not only tap the tin to remove the trapped air, but also to spin the tin with the cake batter. This will even out the top and an even top will give you an even bake.
I hope you’ve found this blog useful; there are more instalments to come in the next few weeks. In the meantime, keep baking and bear in mind these tips!
Image Sources:
Image 1 : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/30/common-cake-baking-mistakes_n_1…
Image 2: http://www.cupcakeproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Overmixed-with-text.jpg
Image 3 : http://www.inspiredtaste.net/24593/essential-pancake-recipe