Cake without mistakes: how to avoid baking pitfalls, from sunken centres to stuck bundts | Australian food and drink

Anyone can bake. I really mean that! But sometimes a baking failure can be disheartening – there’s no sinking feeling like a sunken cake.

When it comes to baking, practise does eventually make perfect. There are some common baking mishaps that, like life, just happen. Here are some tips to help you avoid some more common catastrophes and ensure you become a better baker.

Why does my cake always sink (and never rise)?

There are a couple of different things that can cause a dippy cake.

1. The raising agent has expired. If the cake has a raising agent, such as baking powder, this needs to be incorporated into the cake batter swiftly and then the cake placed into the oven immediately. Baking powder is activated the minute it comes into contact with liquid and so the longer it sits in the cake tin before baking, the higher the chances of its “raising powers” expiring.

2. The cake did not start baking at a high enough temperature. A cake made with flour and raising agent (as above) needs a higher temperature when it first goes into the oven to “lift” the crumb. Make sure to preheat your oven well in advance so that once the cake goes in, it begins cooking and takes full advantage of the baking powder’s power.

   Whatever the recipe, preheat the oven to 10C higher than instructed. Once you open the door the oven will lose heat, the cake will take longer to rise, and the aforementioned raising agent will become exhausted and lose the will to live. When the cake is in, shut the door and lower the heat to the prescribed recipe temperature.

   To be clear, if the cake has no flour or you have used gluten-free flour, there will usually be a dip in the middle because it has no protein to hold the centre of the cake up. This is part of the cake’s nature and should be accepted.

Why does my cake batter curdle?

This usually happens when using a creaming method, where eggs are incorporated into butter and sugar. Your batter has likely curdled because of one of the below situations:

1. The butter wasn’t soft enough. When I say soft, I mean like the texture of dollop cream, not simply at room temperature. There are two reasons you need sufficiently soft butter: to allow any sugar to meld properly with the butter and create a fluffy base, and to encourage the eggs to emulsify with the butter more easily. Eggs will struggle to combine with butter that is too firm.

2. The eggs weren’t at room temperature. Eggs don’t like to be cold when mingling with butter. Pull them out of the fridge the night before to allow them to come up to room temperature.

3. You tried to add whole eggs to the butter. Give the eggs a little whisk with a fork to break them up and this will assist their union with the butter.

Why is my cake so dense and dry?

There are a few things that could have happened here.

1. I think a lot of cake recipes have too much flour in them. Cut the flour quantity with a proportion of nut meal to impart moisture and lower the gluten (ultimately, gluten gives the cake its dryness).

2. The cake batter has curdled as you’re making it (see above). A curdled cake will need to cook for longer because the structure of the batter is broken. This usually results in a dry cake.

3. The cake doesn’t have enough fat. Depending on the cake you’re making, increase the fat – oil, milk or butter – already in the recipe. Start with a modest increase – about 10%. This will lighten the cake and impart more moisture that then translates to steam.

Why are my sponges not fluffy and light?

A light and fluffy sponge is created by aerating eggs and then gently folding the dry ingredients through to preserve the air you have created.

This can be difficult because there are so many folds to make before the sponge is completely combined, that the batter gradually deflates. The secret is to make a strong base first.

Some sponges require you to separate the eggs and whip the yolks and whites separately with sugar, then combine them. In this case the meringue (the egg white component) is the key element to making a strong base – add the sugar slowly, a little at a time, for best results.

My favourite way to make a fluffy sponge is by using the genoise method. Heat the cracked whole eggs and sugar over hot (not boiling) water slightly before whisking them until they cool. This creates a strong stable base to allow for all the folding of flour so that by the time the sponge goes in the oven the air is still preserved.

Using cake flour or Japanese chiffon flour, which are both lower in protein than all-purpose flour, will also improve your sponge immeasurably.

How do I stop my cakes from sticking in the pan?

The best way to line a cake tin is with baking paper, cut neatly to the same size of the base, with a long strip as a “collar” around the sides. At Flour and Stone we use a light spray of oil to adhere the paper collars and bases to the tins (of which there are hundreds!) – this stops the liner moving around and keeps it snug to the curves of the tin.

If you have a bundt tin that can’t be lined with paper, grease it with butter and sprinkle lightly with flour. You could also try caster sugar instead of flour, which will give a nicer shine on the edges of the cake.

The most important thing is that the greasing butter should be softened – not melted. Melting the butter will cause the fat to separate, and when you brush it on the tin, the fat distribution will be uneven, and you might find the cake will only stick in patches.