Cakes that are Dry or have a Tough Crust: Over baking from the oven temperature being too low and the baking time being too long. Overbeating egg whites or too many of them. Pan too big. Cake cooled in a drafty area.
When a pan is over greased the crust can literally fry and if flour is used it can burn, forming a dark hard crust on a finished cake. As the cake cools the crust becomes hard and dry. Hard crust on cupcakes can be caused by over baking.
The culprit behind what makes a cake tough could be overmixing your flour. Flour is the foundation of baked recipes because it provides structure. When combined with liquid and after mixing, flour's protein (gluten) begins to develop.
There's a big chance your butter and sugar will over-cream, meaning the butter will trap more air than it should. As the batter bakes, that extra air will deflate and leave you with an overly dense cake. It's all science! For best results, cream butter and sugar together for about 1-2 minutes.
When you overmix cake batter, the gluten in the flour can form elastic gluten strands – resulting in a more dense, chewy texture. The white batter looks airier, while the red looks thick and dense. You Can Taste The Difference: The overmixed cupcakes were gummy.
A dry cake is usually the result of one of the following pitfalls: using the wrong ingredients, making mistakes while mixing the batter, or baking the cake too long or at too high a temperature. Once you understand how to avoid the common cake-baking blunders, you'll bake a moist cake every time.
Sticky cake and cupcake tops are from a reaction with sugar and water. Sugars are hygroscopic, meaning they attract water. Within baked goods, sugars help maintain a moist and tender crumb. Sugar on the exposed tops, however, will grab water from humid air, creating a wet or sticky top.
If your oven is too cool:
Your cake may have coarse, dense or heavy texture. Your cake won't set fast enough and will fall. Your crust may be too light. If your oven temperature is uneven, your cake may be uneven.
A properly baked cake is sublime. It's tender, moist, and has a perfect crumb. An overbaked cake, on the other hand, can be dry and tough. And maybe worse, an underbaked cake is gummy and dense.
Cakes typically bake between 325 to 450 degrees F (see chart with Tip #9). Most convection ovens require lowering the temperature by 25 to 50 degrees F, as well as turning off the fan.
Milk does help to make cakes moist. It also does a number of other things in cakes such as helping to provide the proper texture and it enhances the taste.
Through the chemical reaction created by combining baking soda with liquid, acid, and heat, carbon dioxide is created. These tiny CO2 gas bubbles allow for soft and airy baked goods such as cookies, pancakes, and cakes.
The extra yolks add the density and moisture you'd find in a bakery cake! Milk: Add MILK, not water, when your box mix calls for liquid. The milk adds density, fat and, most importantly, extra flavor to your mix. Egg WHITES: Not adding the yolks to the cake makes the cake fluffy and whiter!
When overcooked, a cake will come out hard and dry, and when undercooked, it has a gummy and dense texture.
You may notice visible pockets of flour, streaks of butter, or uneven coloration. When overmixed, though, cookie dough will feel dense, greasy, heavy, and warm. It may be tough to roll out or work with, just like overmixed pie dough.
2) Too much flour was used
If you use a cup rather than a scale there's a good chance you're using too much flour: up to 20% too much, if you use the measuring cup as a scoop then tamp the flour down. Any baked good — especially cake —with too much flour will be dry, hard, crumbly … take your unhappy pick.
The most common cake soak is simple syrup, equal parts sugar and water cooked until the sugar is dissolved. This added bit of liquid and sweetness help make the cake more moist, and stay moist longer. Professional bakers also use a milk soak, which is milk or cream dabbed onto the cake.
Pound Cake
The cake itself is extremely dense, since it doesn't rise as much as the American-style butter cake. Because of its richness, pound cakes typically have light flavors and are served plain or topped with a basic glaze.
Top/Bottom heating is the most effective setting to use when you are baking or roasting on a single level. The heat is emitted evenly from above and below, making it ideal for baking cakes.
The majority of cakes are baked in a regular oven at 180c (350F/Gas Mk 4), on the centre shelf of the oven.
We know the temptation to check on your cake is high, but we're here to give you one of our top tips: don't open the oven when baking. This is a common mistake, and can cause your cake to collapse because the rush of cold air stops your caking from rising.
Baking the cake
degrees (or 180C., Gas mark 4) oven. Bake the cake for 45-50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center of the cake…