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Hstrybuf2 badge: Community Member

cake collapse

I've been baking for some years now, and recently my cakes have started to collapse after being taken out of the oven. I've checked the oven temperature and that seems fairly consistent, so now I'm trying to eliminate other possibilities and think of what I may be doing differently. I've started using wooden skewers which have a bigger diameter than the toothpick or broom straw I've always used. Could this be the culprit?

Tags: cake collapse, skewer

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sandra Alicante

Your cake should be set by the time you remove it. I can understand you having a collapse if you check your cake too early but that would happen while it was still cooking not after it has finished.
So it would seem that your cake is uncooked when you take it out. Sticking something in a cake that has cooked properly is not going to make it sink.
IF your oven is ok, then something must have changed in your recipe. Larger eggs or adding too much liquid or not measuring your flour the same way, something not right with the mix. Have you changed from cups to weight or visa versa?
You don't state what type of cake you are making, so this has to be guesswork. Have you recently needed to copy your recipe and made an error writing it down?

sandrascookbook.com

KAF_Frank
  • Reply by KAF_Frank on February 17, 2012 at 11:15 am
  • badge: King Arthur Baker

Hi,
It could also be that the batter was over creamed (too much air) during mixing. This would show as a very well risen cake in the oven, tested as done, but a collapse with a resulting gummy interior after cooling. Frank @ KAF.

Hstrybuf2
  • Reply by Hstrybuf2 on February 17, 2012 at 3:48 pm
  • badge: Community Member

Thanks Frank, that sounds exactly like what happened. I followed the time it should have been beaten, but maybe I had my mixer set too high.

Hstrybuf2
  • Reply by Hstrybuf2 on February 17, 2012 at 3:54 pm
  • badge: Community Member

Hi Sandra,

These are cakes I haven't tried before and I read the recipe from the book, so the error wasn't with the recipe. I'm also wondering whether the difference between bleached and unbleached flour may play a part. I'm used to dealing with bleached all-purpose but I've switched to unbleached all purpose.

omaria
  • Reply by omaria on February 17, 2012 at 5:44 pm
  • badge: Community Member

One of our esteemed mentors is Kidpizza. On the Baking,desserts and sweets forum I pulled up an older post for you to read. On Nov.19 he answered why cakes can go wrong.

Hstrybuf2
  • Reply by Hstrybuf2 on February 18, 2012 at 5:31 am
  • badge: Community Member

Thank you for referring me to that post. It was very helpful. From all the information from the replies I have gotten, I think I had the perfect storm of reasons the cake fell so now I can try again!