Dessert Junky | Premiere Desserts for North Texas

Tips & Tricks - Cakes

When baking a chocolate cake, use cocoa powder instead of flour when preparing the cake pan for baking.
Before torting a cake, freeze it and let it come back to room temperature. The cake won’t be as crumbly when cutting it.

Cakes Table from Professional Baking 4th Edition by Wayne Gisslen
Problem	Causes
*Volume and Shape*
Poor volume	Too little flour Too much liquid Too little leavening Oven too hot
Uneven shape	Improper mixing Batter spread unevenly Uneven oven heat Oven racks not level Cake pans warped
*Crust*
Too dark	Too much sugar Oven too hot
Too light	Too little sugar Oven not hot enough
Burst or cracked	Too much flour or flour too strong Too little liquid Improper mixing Oven too hot
Soggy	Underbaked Cooling in pans or with not enough ventilation Wrapping before cool
*Texture*
Dense or heavy	Too little leavening Too much liquid Too much sugar Too much shortening Oven not hot enough
Coarse or irregular	Too much leavening Too little eggs Improper mixing
Crumbly	Too much leavening Too much shortening Too much sugar Wrong kind of flour Improper mixing
Tough	Flour too strong Too much flour Too little sugar or shortening Overmixing
*Poor Flavor*
	Poor quality ingredients Poor storage or sanitation Unbalanced formula