Cake Is Heavy or Dense Possible reasons your cake is heavy/dense: Too little baking powder. Too many eggs. Batter is overmixed.
Introduction of Eggs into the Batter
Sometimes the yolks and whites are beaten separately. Make sure to follow the timings in the recipe when beating in eggs and whether you need to have your eggs at room temperature first. Too many eggs in the batter can result in a dense or compact cake.
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.
For example, in a cake mix that calls for 1 cup of water, substitute plain or flavored yogurt, or milk that contains some amount of milk fat. The greater the percentage of fat, such as you find in whole milk or buttermilk, the denser the cake will be. Substituting whole eggs for egg whites will also increase density.
The most common reason why cakes sink in the middle is that they're underbaked. If a cake isn't fully baked through, the center doesn't have a chance to set and it will sink. This creates a doughy, dense texture in the center of your cake layer.
Over-mixing the batter causes strong gluten strands to form, which give your cake that dense texture. If some of your ingredients are cold, they make it more difficult to mix together your batter and can impact the rise of your cake.
Too much fat gives a batter that tends to flow or collapse, producing a cake that is small with a flat top. The texture is very soft and may be greasy. The crust will be soft and moist. There may be a 'bone' near the bottom of the cake where the crumb tends to collapse.
Most common fats used in baking fall into one of two categories: solid fats and liquid fats. Solid fats include things like butter and shortening, while liquid fats are going to be your oils.
Baking soda and baking powder are common baking ingredients. They are both leavening agents, meaning they help baked goods to rise.
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.
If the butter or spread is too soft, it becomes oily and the resulting cake heavy and dense. If the butter is too cold, it takes too long to incorporate into the sugar and eggs and can cause over-mixing, which in turn means a heavy cake.
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.
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.
In other words, there will be bigger pockets of air within the cake. The final result will also be a little more dense and chewy. I prefer the light, soft texture of cakes baked with a lower protein flour.
Soak the cake.
Pastry chefs often soak cakes in a simple syrup made of equal parts granulated sugar and water after the cakes come out of the oven. This step can add sweetness and moisten the cake. In addition to simple syrup, you can also use coconut milk, evaporated milk, or flavored liqueur.
Fats such as butter or extra virgin olive oil add moisture and a beautiful texture to homemade cakes and pastries, and this often means you can reduce the sugars considerably in all your recipes.
Butter. Butter is the most common type of solid fat used in baking because it adds great flavor to our baked goods and the presence of water in butter makes it great for assisting with leavening.
Salt has a binding or strengthening effect on gluten and thereby adds strength to any flour. The additional firmness imparted to the gluten by the salt enables it to hold the water and gas better, and allows the dough to expand without tearing.
In cakes, fats can either be creamed with sugar to act as a leavening agent or are added as such to promote moistness and soft texture. In breads, fats act as dough lubricants which help with loaf rise and crumb softening.
Anywhere between 2 and 6 minutes should suffice. The time necessary for mixing will vary with recipe but this should help give you with a ball park idea of mixing time. I hope this information helps as you go forward experimenting with mix times in all of your batter-blending adventures. Happy baking!
Baked goods with sugar (and thus more retained water) tend to be softer, moister, and have better shelf life. The more you reduce sugar (without any other adjustments), the drier and more crumbly your baked goods will be — and the shorter their shelf life.
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.
Add a leavening agent to the flour. Most cakes will call for a leavening agent like baking powder or baking soda. These create the bubbles you need for the cake to rise. If the flour you use is self-raising, it already has a leavening agent in it.
The main reason cakes can be eggy is that the recipe calls for too many eggs or the eggs are too large. Additionally, the ingredients may be out of balance, the oven temperature may be too low, or the baking time may be too long.