Cake Is Heavy or Dense Possible reasons your cake is heavy/dense: Too little baking powder. Too many eggs. Batter is overmixed.
A cake that is overly dense typically has too much liquid, too much sugar or too little leavening (not excess flour, as is commonly thought).
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.
When a cake is too dense, one might think that adding extra flour will soak up more moisture and lighten up the crumb. However, that's not usually the case. The cake likely needs more leavening support from baking powder or baking soda.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
The majority of cakes are baked in a regular oven at 180c (350F/Gas Mk 4), on the centre shelf of the oven.
Baking at a lower temperature slows the spring in the leavening, which prevents a dome from forming on your cake. Most cakes bake at 350°F. Reducing the temperature to 325°F is all you need to do to get a flat-topped cake.
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.
Overmixing is exactly what it sounds like: the process by which a dough or batter gets mixed too much, typically yielding dense, tough, or deflated baked goods. Overmixed doughs and batters may have an unappealing look or feel, which remain just as unappealing when they're baked.
Eggs and flour can be easily overmixed, so taking the time to cream butter and sugar before adding other ingredients ensures that your batter or dough won't split or lose its structure.
The longer it sits at room temperature, the more it loses this quality. At first, the batter loses the beaten air; then, the chemical leavener decreases its activity. So it makes sense to refrigerate your batter if you don't plan to bake it right away.
Powder has the leavening power to puff all on its own. One other side effect of the additional ingredients in baking powder is that the mix is less concentrated (and thus less powerful) than baking soda. In fact, 1 teaspoon of baking powder has approximately the same leavening power as just ¼ teaspoon baking soda.
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.
Creaming is the magical step that creates a light and airy homemade cake. It describes the process of incorporating air into your batter, which (in conjunction with baking soda or baking powder) helps the cake leaven and rise. Your recipe probably starts by beating the room temperature butter and sugar together.
Place softened butter and sugar into large mixing bowl. Mix, using hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed 1-2 minutes, or until butter mixture is pale yellow, light and fluffy.
Over-creamed butter and sugar adds in too much air and alters the final texture – typically to be more gummy and dense. Sometimes over-creaming can produce cakes, cupcakes, or cookies that collapse upon baking or while cooling if the mixture is well and truly over-creamed (where it looks like curdled milk).
Over-mixing, therefore, can lead to cookies, cakes, muffins, pancakes, and breads that are tough, gummy, or unpleasantly chewy.