There’s nothing like digging your fork into a slice of perfectly light, moist, and fluffy cake. Are your cakes coming out more dense than you expect them to be? We have a few tips so you can avoid these common baking mistakes to make sure every cake comes out of your oven as perfectly fluffy as possible.
1 You aren’t measuring your ingredients correctly.
For dry ingredients, such as flour and cocoa powder, use a spoon and scoop the ingredients from the container into measuring cups until completely full. Then, use the flat edge of your utensil to sweep any excess from the top. Don’t dip. Dipping your measuring cup into the container can result in the ingredients becoming too packed, and you will end up with more than you should.
For the most accurate results, use a weighing scale. Too much flour in your cake batter will yield very dense baked cakes.
2 You aren’t preheating your oven.
Your oven needs to be at the right temperature prior to placing your cake inside. Our best tip to know when your oven is ready? Use an oven thermometer for an accurate reading. Otherwise, remember to preheat your oven at least 20 minutes before anything goes inside. Ovens that are too cool will not let the cakes rise as fast as they should, and you will end up with dense, flat cakes that didn’t rise enough.
3 You are using the wrong ingredients.
Common cake recipes will call for fresh eggs, cake flour, caster sugar, and more. While these ingredients can be easily substituted, try to follow the recipe to a T as much as possible. For example, cake flour has been ground more finely than all purpose. So, cake flour-based batters will be lighter than all-purpose flour-based batters while caster sugar will produce more air bubbles that regular white sugar when whipped with butter.
It is also important to check the freshness of your leavening agents like baking soda and baking powder because these majorly contribute to the rise of your cake batter once it hits the oven. How? Sprinkle baking soda or baking powder in either vinegar or hot water and wait for bubbles to appear. If it bubbles up immediately, it’s still fresh enough to use. If nothing happens, it’s time get a fresh pack.
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