After hour and a half the wait is finally over. First bite into your deliciously smelling goodness, your face suddenly losses it glow and turned skewed. What the heck goes wrong this time????
Lets don't talk about souffle or sponge cake, even experts ruin it sometimes, I am talking of Pound cake or butter cake. It's so easy, just take a few of my tips and you will never go wrong.
Two most common mishaps are:
NOT RISING
Heres a secret formula. Add baking soda with an acid. It works wonders. Soda reacts with acid and gives off carbon dioxide bubbles, causing your cake to rise beautifully. As an acid you can use brown sugar, lemon, orange juice, buttermilk, even vinegar or ACV. Add any acid suiting your recipe.
THE RIGHT TEMPERATURE PAN SIZE AND BATTER CONSISTENCY RATIO
The crust cooks fast as compared to the center. If the ratio is off you will have a center risen cake with low edges. (A little is normal). In severe case you will face a dark or burned crust or still wet center.
The more watery your batter is the wider pan you should use and cook at a little low temperature for a little longer time.
If your pan is small, make a thicker batter and reduce your cooking time. Innovate every time and you will have your instincts.
OTHER PRECAUTIONS TO WATCH FOR
1. Never overcook. It dries out cake. Even if center is a little moist, close the burner and let the cake rest in over for 10 – 15 minutes. But if your cake is done don't keep it in closed oven, or it will dry out.
2. Please, please don't use granulated sugar. It is heavy and settle down, weighing down your cake and it wont rise. If you are out of castor sugar, grind your sugar in a mill to make finer. Or just leave your sugar in eggs whisking every 5 minutes untill its almost dissolved.
3. If you are using oil instead of butter, lower your quantity. Like instead of 1/2 cup butter use 1/3 cup oil. By the way oil make cake more moist.
4. If you are out of cake flour, use 1 cup ordinary flour and replace 1 1/4 tsp of flour with 1 tsp baking powder + 1/4 tsp baking soda.
5. The more air your batter have, the more light textured your cake will be. Always cream butter and sugar and sieve your flour. The more the better.
6. After you add the flour, work quickly, dont over mix. Because the more you mix, the more you'll get stretchy gluten in the flour. It's good for breads but for cake its a big NO. So the moment you add flour work quickly till your cake is inside the oven.
7. Never open your oven door untill halfway. This sudden drop in air temperature causes cake to sink.
8. Cakes are best served the next day. The crust softens and the cake is more moist. Keep it covered in fridge or in a cool dry corner. Next time try to hold your gnaw for a day, you won't regret it.
Now you know the basics and little secrets. Go on, make a cake confidently. Because now, you are going yo nail it.
Here's a recipe for easy chocolate blob in vanilla cake.
Enjoy!!