Cake Baking Tips from Duncan Hines

Photo from Duncan Hines

There is nothing worse than baking your favorite cake recipe and having it not turn out the way you wanted.  I gathered these baking tips from Duncan Hines to try and help you prevent any problems with your cake recipes.  Notice how similar the solutions are to each other.  By just following these tips, you can prevent nearly every disaster out there!

Cake Did Not Rise

~ Pan is too large

~ Oven temperature is too low – under- baked

~ Under-beating the batter

~ Added too much liquid

~ Batter sat too long before baking

Cake Fell or Dipped, Was Soggy, Compact or Heavy

~ Oven running too cool, under-baked

~ Cake removed from oven before completely baked

~ Too much liquid

~ Extra ingredients added to batter

~ Excessive over-beating

~ Used too much batter per pan

~ Didn’t use cool water, cold eggs

Batter Ran Over Sides of Pan

~ Oven temperature too low

~ Pans too small, too much batter per pan

~ Batter unevenly divided between pans.  Fill pans ½ full, not more than 1” deep

~ Too much liquid

~ Oven racks not level

~ Pans not placed in center of oven

Cake Sticks to Pan, Difficult to Remove

~ Pans not greased heavily enough

~ Cooled improper length of time.  If cake is too hot it will break easily.  If cooled too long in pan, the shortening begins to harden and can “glue” the cake to the pan.

~ Cake not loosened with knife or spatula before removal

Cake Wet, Moist, Weeps When Stored

~ Under-baked

~ Not completely cooled before frosted or stored

~ Frosting a frozen cake

~ Freezing a frosted cake

~ Stored in an area that was too warm or humid

Sheet Cakes Split, Cracked

~ Not enough batter in pan

~ Stored at too warm a temperature, store at 40F in warm, humid months

Cake Split, Humped or Peaked Too Much, Shrunk, Had Holes And Tunnels, Dry, Crumbly

~ All of these problems can indicate over-baking which results from too hot an oven or too long a bake time.

~ Holes and tunnels can also be caused by failure to scrape bottom and sides of bowl when mixing batter.  Excessively lumpy mix.

Custard-Like Streak Across Cake

~ Streak across bottom of cake, too much liquid

~ Streak under top crust of cake, under-baked

~ Extra ingredients added to batter

~ Excessive over-beating

~ Failure to scrape or improperly scraping bottom and sides of the bowl

Layers Uneven

~ Oven racks not level

~ Pans not centered in oven

~ Too much liquid

~ Under-mixing

~ Oven temperature too high

Uneven Browning

~ Oven not pre-heated

~ Used dark, dented or warped pans

~ Oven racks not level

Cake Difficult to Frost

~ Cake not removed from pan properly

~ Cake cooled in wrong position, cakes should cool right side up on a cooling rack

~ Cake not completely cool before frosting

~ Excessive crumbs not brushed away

~ Frosting not of a good spreading consistency

~ Try using a crumb coat before frosting

Cake Broke, Crumbled When Assembled

~ Cake stored in too warm or humid area

~ Cake not supported with rack when de-panning or turning over

~ Cakes not stacked with adequate supports

Also, for best results use the recommended amounts of water, eggs and oil.  In hot weather, use cold water and cold eggs.  Be sure that your oven is calibrated to the right temperture.   I hope this helps you to bake the perfect cake every time!

Happy baking,

Pam