The problem that makes many beginners in the kitchen give up on making cakes is their poor results. It often happens that, despite following the recipe perfectly, the result after baking is not satisfactory, but a pure disaster.
We reveal the most common mistakes that make your cakes fail.
1. Use baking soda instead of baking powder and vice versa
The baking powder is made from baking soda, but it's his structure and texture completely different, as well as the effect they have in certain recipes. Baking soda only reacts and produces carbon dioxide when mixed with acidic ingredients such as chocolate, yogurt, sour milk or vinegar. Baking powder, on the other hand, produces carbon dioxide when mixed with water.
2. Do not sift the dry ingredients
Many recipes say to sift the dry ingredients before adding them to the mixture, but many skip it. This step is important, because by sifting the flour we remove any lumps in the dough, and by sifting the baking powder we ensure that no holes form on the surface of the cake.
3. Open the oven door while baking
When you open the oven door, heat is released which causes the cake to fail. This happens because the mixture it stays fresh in the middle and it takes just the right amount of time for the whole to change to the desired texture, and when the heat is released, warm air is blown out of the mixture and it falls. This rule applies especially to cakes and cookies without flour.
Do not open the oven while baking.Photo: Ron Lach / Pexels
4. Knead the dough for too long
Recently, automatic mixers are increasingly being used, the functions of which must be mastered before you start using them. Namely, too intensively mixed dough will create air bubbles, which will loosen only after baking. The rule of thumb is that the sugar and butter suffer from vigorous mixing, while the rest of the ingredients are mixed by hand.
5. You forgot to shake the model with the dough
Almost every recipe specifically advises to shake the dough after pouring it into the model. Many avoid this and as a result end up with a cake surface that is lumpy. This tip is valuable because beating dough, especially dough that is thick and sticky, squeeze out air bubbles, which prevents the cake from sagging and leaving a hole in the middle.
Photo: Los muertos/Pexels6. You add egg white snow to the dough mixture too early
A mistake that many people make in the desire to finish the cake as soon as possible is to mix it suddenly add whipped egg whites. Namely, the egg whites become watery in this way, lose their foamy structure, so the dough remains moist and fresh in the middle after baking. First, add the egg whites to the mixture a little at a time with a spoon and then gently mix in the rest.
7. You don't mix the egg yolks and sugar long enough
Many recipes, especially for cakes, begin with the first step of mixing egg yolks with sugar, but a completely simple task can result in bad biscuit texture right from the start. The sugar binds to the yolks and crystals form, which are difficult to mix and turn into a smooth structure, and all subsequent ingredients are difficult to combine into a homogeneous mixture.
