Beautiful cakes don't have to come from your local bakery; they can be made in your kitchen. Sure, baking powder or baking soda plays a part in ensuring your cake rises (without a sunken center) as expected, but that's not the only way to guarantee success from the oven.
If your cake didn't rise or had a dense texture instead of the light and fluffy one you wanted, there are factors to keep in mind during your cake-baking adventures. Successful baking requires attention to every detail, and following these guidelines will help your cakes rise with a tender and airy crumb. Every time.
What Makes a Cake Rise
It's essential to learn what makes a cake rise to prevent it from sinking (or rising and then deflating after cooling). Read through these four factors for preparing and baking cake correctly, and you'll never have to wonder why your cake didn't rise again.
1. Leavening Agents
Breads, cakes, cookies, and nearly all baked goods require a leavening agent. These are the key ingredients that make a cake rise. There are two types of leavening agents, chemical (baking soda and baking powder) and biological (yeast).
Since we're talking about cake and not yeast bread, we'll focus on chemical leavening. The reaction of baking soda or baking powder with the liquids in the batter releases carbon dioxide, which forms air bubbles to help your cakes be light and airy.
Baking soda and baking powder aren't interchangeable. So what's the difference? Baking soda (aka sodium bicarbonate) only activates when combined with liquid AND an acidic ingredient. So it's common to see baking soda quick bread recipes like pancakes or muffins.
If your recipe has baking powder, it's a complete leavener. It will do the trick without the addition of an acidic ingredient. Pay attention to how much of each or just one of the leavening agents you'll need to get your recipe right.
Test Kitchen Tip: Always keep an eye on the expiration dates of your leavening agents. Using an expired leavener will result in a flat, dense cake.
2. Creaming Your Butter Mixture
"Creaming" is the part of the recipe when you beat the butter (or shortening) and sugar with a mixer ($32, Hamilton Beach). When creaming two or more ingredients, usually with a hand mixer, the end result should be a smooth mixture with no separation. Creaming incorporates air that helps your cake rise and shouldn't be cut short if you want a fine, even cake texture. Follow the timings for beating in the recipe closely and measure your ingredients correctly.
3. Introduction of Eggs into the Batter
Eggs alone can help make desserts like angel food cake light and fluffy without requiring leavening agents. The cake you make will determine how much beating eggs need. In a traditional yellow cake, you'd beat eggs individually into the batter for 1 minute each. Sometimes the yolks and whites are beaten separately.
Make sure to follow the timings in the recipe when beating in eggs and whether you need to have your eggs at room temperature first. Too many eggs in the batter can result in a dense or compact cake.
How to Make Sure Your Cake Always Comes Out Moist
4. Oven Temperature
The oven's heat can cause baking powder to react further and cause more air bubbles while setting the cake's structure. Correct oven temperature is necessary to allow the cake to rise before the structure sets. If the oven is too hot, the cake will set too fast before the air bubbles have formed. If the oven is not hot enough, the cake will rise too much, then fall in the center before it is set.
Bake a cake mix cake for a test run to check your oven temperature. (Make sure you've preheated your oven, too.) If the cake is done properly within the time range on the package, your oven is most likely baking at the proper temperature. Use an oven thermometer ($7, Walmart) to see if the temperature matches the setting.
You can also consult your manufacturer's directions or an appliance expert on adjusting the temperature up or down. Keeping your oven clean can also help it stay consistently heated.
Practice Your Baking Skills with Our Classic Cake Recipes
If for some reason you're still wondering why your cake deflated after cooling, use our cake troubleshooting guide to learn the various reasons why cakes fall and ensure it never happens again. Don't throw the flat cake out, either! Give your cake a new look by turning it into cake pops or cut it up and serve it with ice cream.
Now that you've got the basics for how to prevent the cake from sinking, give your new baking knowledge a try with our double chocolate cake or champagne cake with strawberries.
Most cakes will call for a leavening agent like baking powder or baking soda. These create the bubbles you need for the cake to rise. If the flour you use is self-raising, it already has a leavening agent in it.
Most cakes will call for a leavening agent like baking powder or baking soda. These create the bubbles you need for the cake to rise. If the flour you use is self-raising, it already has a leavening agent in it.
Flour, sugar, egg and fat form the basic components of all cakes. Understanding the function of each of these ingredients in cake baking can give us a better idea of where we can substitute super foods such as flax, chia, or mushrooms.
The most crucial tip? Instead of buying an entire box of cake flour, simply incorporate two tablespoons of cornstarch into 3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour. This blocks the formation of gluten in the flour, which produces a lighter, fluffier cake.
Baking powder is mixed with the flour. When water is added to this flour to make dough, baking powder undergoes a chemical reaction during which carbon dioxide gas is produced. This carbon dioxide gas gets trapped into the dough and bubbles out which causes the cake to rise making it soft and spongy.
Baking soda changes the texture of baked goods by causing a batter or dough to spread, while baking powder produces light, fluffy texture. Some recipes may call for baking soda or baking powder on their own, while others may require both ingredients to create the ideal balance for great texture.
One common ingredient swap that is known to help make cakes remarkably moist is using milk instead of water. Try switching out any water in your recipe for full-fat milk or buttermilk for a moist, decadent texture. Another ingredient that can enhance the moisture of your cake is mayonnaise.
Cake baking requires several pieces of equipment to ensure successful results. These include mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons, an electric mixer, a spatula, cake pans, parchment paper, a cooling rack, and an oven.
Breads, cakes, cookies, and nearly all baked goods require a leavening agent. These are the key ingredients that make a cake rise. There are two types of leavening agents, chemical (baking soda and baking powder) and biological (yeast).
A cake or other food that is fluffy is very light because it has a lot of air in it. Cream together the margarine and sugar with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy.
Flour, water, and leavening agents are the ingredients primarily responsible for the characteristic appearance, texture, and flavour of most bakery products. Eggs, milk, salt, shortening, and sugar are effective in modifying these qualities, and various minor ingredients may also be used.
It is important to note that baking soda is responsible for making cakes and pastries to be light and fluffy. The chemical name and formula of baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and \[NaHC{{O}_{3}}\]. Baking soda reacts with tartaric acid and generates sodium tartrate, water and carbon dioxide.
Most cakes begin with creaming butter and sugar together. Butter is capable of holding air and the creaming process is when butter traps that air. While baking, that trapped air expands and produces a fluffy cake. No properly creamed butter = no air = no fluffiness.
Baking soda and baking powder are more common in recipes for cookies, cakes, and quick breads, and they are responsible for giving baked goods the light, fluffy, porous structure that makes them delicious.
An over-mixed batter overworks the gluten in the flour, resulting in weaker gluten structures. This makes your cake flat and destroys its fluffy texture. Fold your dry ingredients into the wet ones lightly with a spatula and do not stir too hard.
Add structure. On their own, boxed cake mixes have a structure that's loose and airy. But if you add ¼ cup flour or half a box of instant pudding mix, the texture of the cake becomes denser and tighter, ideal for a pound-cake-like consistency that will hold the shape of a Bundt pan.
Use a smear of butter on the inside of the tin to stick the parchment in place. 8. My cake is very dense. This could be because a/ the cake mixture hasn't had enough air beaten into it, b/ the eggs were added too quickly and curdled or c/ there's not enough raising agent.
Baking soda as we talked about reacts immediately to acidic elements and gives immediate leavening effect. The baking powder keeps reacting with the heat to give a leavening boost while the baked goods are in the oven. A combination of both these leavening agents gives the best leavening for most cake recipes.
Introduction: My name is Lakeisha Bayer VM, I am a brainy, kind, enchanting, healthy, lovely, clean, witty person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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