How to bake a cake correctly: 10 common mistakes you make when baking a cake

Is the dough too sweet, burnt, dry...? Anyone who has ever tried to make a cake or other pastry has thrown the dough in the trash at least once. This will no longer be the case if you follow the tips below on how to avoid the most common mistakes.

How to bake a cake correctly?

1. Use the right butter

Fat in a recipe plays a key role in flavor and texture, and most recipes call for it butter (specifically, unsalted butter, softened at room temperature). It is also one of the first steps when something goes wrong when baking a cake.

Unless otherwise specifically stated in the recipe, the butter should be standard butter. Do not give "light" butter or margarine, because they have more water and less fat per volume than regular butter, the cake will fail. Butter and margarine do not have the same texture or composition.

2. The butter should be at room temperature

Most pastry chefs use softened butter. Therefore, it should not be added to pastry or cake batter directly from the refrigerator or melted, unless the recipe says so. Properly softened butter should hold its shape but be pliable enough to make a dent in it without too much pressure.

The easiest way to achieve this result is to plan ahead. Measure out the required amount and place it in a bowl for at least an hour.

If you need to speed up the process, do not heat the butter in the microwave. It is better to cut cold butter into cubes or coarsely grate it and arrange the pieces in one layer on a plate.

3. Add all the ingredients at once

It's tempting to save time by mixing all the ingredients in one bowl. But thoroughly beating the butter and sugar (and then adding the eggs and any other liquids) is the basis for the perfect cake, as is the separate step of evenly mixing and adding the rest of the dry ingredients before combining them with the wet ingredients.

4. Substitution of ingredients

There are reasons why certain ingredients in a recipe can be changed. While it's possible to make a substitution and still get delicious results, it's risky if you don't know how to do it.

Flour, sugars, fats, eggs and yeast all affect the taste, texture and appearance of baked goods in complex ways. Tip – better to change the recipe than the ingredients.

See also

Culinary

Recipe: Naan bread, pan-baked Indian bread

5. Use of expired ingredients

Every food has an expiration date. With some ingredients, the expiration date doesn't always matter because the only consequence is that the flavor is slightly weaker. But for some ingredients it is very important.

Leavening agents – yeast, baking powder and baking soda lose their effectiveness over time. And flour it can become stale, which results in the desserts not having the right taste.

6. Forget about preventive measures

It's perfectly fine to sometimes follow the advice of our mothers and grandmothers to add something when cooking, but it's not worth it when making pastries. The final result depends on the synergy of chemical reactions between the ingredients, and these reactions are based on the mutual ratio of the ingredients. Use measuring cups for liquids and measuring cups for dry ingredients.

7. Put the pastry dough in the oven as soon as it is whipped

Cakes are almost always better if you refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes before baking. This step controls the spread of the cake during baking and results in a better taste.

So if the recipe says to bake for 10 to 12 minutes, look in the oven after 8 minutes – are the edges dark?

8. Relying on the recipe for baking time

Has the core flattened and lost its luster or is it still wet? Keep a close eye on how the pastry or cake batter is baking by looking through the oven door without opening it.

Suggested

The importance of maintaining oral hygiene during orthodontic treatment