poundcake
Can someone please tell me what my problem may be with my poundcakes? I am using a sourcream batter, and I think I am mixing it right, but no two of my cakes look crusty like they are supposed to. I baked one Monday, and it looked really good. Today I baked one, and part of the top looked darker,like maybe sugar came to the top, and it had a soft feel to it, not hard and crusty, like I like it to look. Could it be the humidity, or the way I am mixing it. I would like for my poundcake to look the same everytime. Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.
Tags: top of poundcake?
- Login to post comments
Replies to This Discussion
- Reply by kidpizza on November 17, 2011 at 2:15 pm
-
WEEZER:
Good day. Weezer, you have received 2, XLNT postings. I suspect a un~balanced cake recipe here which is typical of these type cakes using either sourcream OR cream cheese. I suspect you baked this recipe in a regular round cake pan rather than a BUNDT style pan. If you want help on this recipe post the recipe as advised by MRSCINDY.
Enjoy the rest of the day.
~KIDPIZZA.
- Login to post comments
- Reply by frick on November 17, 2011 at 2:22 pm
-
Another thought came to mind. Your measurements might have been off from one batch to the next. If you bake a lot, you may find it to your advantage to begin weighing your ingredients. It's so much more accurate and consistent. Many of us here have bought good scales. If this interests you, just ask.
- Login to post comments
- Reply by BakerIrene on November 18, 2011 at 6:49 pm
-
You need to weigh your ingredients. You need to make sure that the butter and eggs and sour cream are all at room temperature before you start mixing.
Primary problem: You are probably getting a lot of variation in the amount of flour, which would show up as exactly this result
You can't see it but some areas seem to have a lot more humidity in the flour than other places. For breadmaking you can fix this on the fly by hand kneading.
To fix humid flour in cake baking is a lot harder. Buy a bag of cake flour and dump it into a sealed canister as soon as you get it from the store. Then you should expect constant results from that one batch of flour.
- Login to post comments
- Reply by BakerIrene on November 18, 2011 at 6:49 pm
-
Sorry--I should also have said, is your oven baking OK?
Do you have a separate thermometer that you can test your oven thermostat with? Is it old and maybe has a leaky door seal, or a heating element that is about to go to the Great Beyond?
- Login to post comments
- Reply by mrscindy on November 18, 2011 at 9:49 pm
-
I thought about oven temp, too, but since Weezer said yeasted breads baked with no problems, I was thinking on other lines. Unfortunately, Weezer has never re-posted with any further information. Hopefully we can get the info needed to be able to help!
~Cindy
- Login to post comments
- Reply by Weezer on November 19, 2011 at 7:55 am
-
Thanks everyone for your input. The oven temp. is consistent, I keep a check on that. I sift the flour after meas. it. eggs are at room temp., sourcream was not, it had only been out 30 min., for each of the 3 cakes. In 2 of the cakes, butter was soft, these are the 2 cakes that had moisture on top. The other cake, the butter was still firm, but not cold, and the cake had a beautiful crusty top. Do you think I had let the butter stay out to long, and maybe the oil from the butter came to the top of the cakes? I've never thought about weighing my ing. Recipe is as follows:
3 cups ap flour(only use White Lily)
1 cup sourcream
2 sticks butter
3 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
6 eggs
1/2 tsp. orange flav.
1/2 tsp. almond flav.
- Login to post comments
- Reply by Weezer on November 19, 2011 at 8:09 am
-
Couldn't get everything in the previous post that was necessary. Oven is a regular gas oven, not convection. Recipe calls for: preheat to 325 degrees,I am creaming butter and sugar 10 min. speed 4 on KA, add sourcream, beat 3 more min. on speed 4, sift flour and baking soda tog.,adding to creamed mix., alternately with eggs, I let each egg beat into mix. 45 sec.beginning and ending with dry ing., last addition of flour, I just let it barely mix in, I keep bowl scraped down in between. add flav. last and bake 1 hr. and 20 min. Leave in pan 10 min., before taking out and putting on plate, and thats how I am making the cake. I don't bake a whole lot of cakes, not a professional by no means, I just love to bake. Thanks again for helping me with this.
- Login to post comments
- Reply by kidpizza on November 19, 2011 at 2:03 pm
-
WEEZER:
Good morning to you. Thank you for your timely reply.
I believe I know of your baking problem...please review my post to you of a few days ago. I mentiond "BAKING PANS" as well as ingredients "SOURCREAM & CREAM CHEESE" Please re~read them & absorb it. AND PLEEEESE re~read the following more than once.
Now then,the reason why I mentioned baking pans is because "I KNEW" you employed a round convential pan. WHY!!!, because when a "A OUT OF BALANCE RECIPE" is employed it will invariably fail in this style pan. If you had baked it in a BUNDT pan it would have baked....WHY??? you may ask...because of the 4, sides that is peculiar to this type pan. Notice it has a big hole in the middle of it. The concoction gets throughly baked at the same time as in the word CONCURRENTLY. This type of pan melts the enormous amount of sugar in this recipe (More about this later)
Weezer, Whenever we employ a solid fat in this case Butter, it is best to employ a bleached flour. I do not know if the brand you use is bleached or not if it isn't a good flour then would be Gold Medal or Pillsbury AP. Notice Weezer, the amount of sugar in this recipe 3,cups equates to 21, oz worth. Notice the amount of flour,3,cups worth. This is not equal in weight. This amount of flour equates to approx 13 oz to 13.75, oz worth. Notice this now Wezzer whenever the sugar in weight exceeds the amount in weight of the flour you have what prof baker's call a "HI~RATIO CAKE FORMULA" In dealing with this they do not employ a solid fat they employ "EMULSIFIED SHORTENING a ingredient you do not have in your pantry. Excessive amount of sugar for the flour to absorb.
Nuff about that. This is what I want to stress upon you. Next time get a therm as well as a scale, any solid fat should be used in mixing at is 65/67 degrees that is optimum. all other ingredients should be at room temp. If you begin mixing with some very cold & some warmer you end up with a very, very curdled batter. Weezer, In creaming you need to cream probably for at 3,- 4 minutes worth to get the ingredients at their exact temp to each other which should be at approx 70/73, degrees....that is what creaming is about. I think I am finished now.
Good luck & If you require further assistance post back we will help. Enjoy the rest of the day
~KIDPIZZA.
SWIRTH,thank you for reminding our members that they should answer their inquires with their information if they expect help.
~CAA.
- Login to post comments
- Reply by Weezer on November 19, 2011 at 3:01 pm
-
KIDPIZZA, Thank you so much for taking your time to deliver such a nice and helpful responce, I see that I have got a lot to learn if I want my cakes to be a success. Even if the top doesn't crust over like I think it should, it has a wonderful taste, and is very moist. The flour I use is Pillsbury and White Lily Ap, and my pan is a regular tube pan. Now my question about creaming, am I overcreaming the butter and sugar, you mentioned 3 to 4 min., is that enough time for everything to come together? Thank you all again for the input.
- Login to post comments
- Reply by kidpizza on November 19, 2011 at 3:41 pm
-
WEEZER:
Hello again. Yes, The idea of creaming is to mix the ingredients till the temp on top is equal to the temp at the bottom of the batter. It should be at about 70 to 73 degrees when completed that is if we begin with room temp ingredients & butter approx 65/67 degrees. The butter can be slightly higher Weezer say like maybe 71 degrees. But Weezer I posted to you what is optimum. If you are empolying a lot of eggs mix 1 at a time for about 45 seconds each This may take you to over 4, munutes mixing time that is okay. It can go further in time till you get the temp. as listed. Bake at 350 degress,. Weezer do not place your bundt pan (TUBE PAN) on a baking pan just place it onto the oven rack.
Keep us posted, We are interested in your progress.
Enjoy the weekend.
~KIDPIZZA.
- Login to post comments
- Reply by Weezer on December 04, 2011 at 9:47 pm
-
KIDPIZZA!!!!!!!
Thank you so very much for taking your time to help me with my cake problem. I made a poundcake Saturday, the first one since my last posting. I got the Pillsbury flour, made sure temp. of butter was as you suggested, made sure I mixed each addition according to your times, and made sure oven temp. was correct, (but still used my reg. tube pan), and my cake turned out excellent! I was so happy with the way it looked on top, crusty and pretty. Making the recipe right cannot be hurried, and I think that may be what I did, unknowingly, and not using the right flour. I have never used a bundt pan, so could you suggest a good brand name one to get? Thanks again for all the input, and to everyone else that offered suggestions for me to try.
- Login to post comments
- Reply by mrscindy on December 04, 2011 at 10:11 pm
-
Weezer, you have just learned the single most important lesson a new baker to this forum can learn. You have listened to, and taken the advice of, a professional baker. KidPizza is one of our esteemed 'professors' on the Baking Circle. If you ask him a question, listen to what he says and follow his instructions, your end result will be what you want. HE never fails. WE sometimes fail because we don't follow his advice to the letter, but HE is not wrong.
I'm so glad your pound cake came out like you wanted, but I had no doubt it would, if you followed KidPizza's advice. Now, my recommendation for a Bundt pan would be the original Bundt pan by NordicWare. They make two sizes. Make sure you get the larger size. It will handle 15 cups of batter. The newer pans do not accommodate as much batter and this can come as a rude awakening. Remember, you can usually (note the use of the word 'usually') use a larger pan, but try fitting too much batter into a smaller pan. Doesn't work.
KidPizza will probably weigh in here on this issue, so if he says I should just be quiet, then I'll sit here quietly corrected. :-))
~Cindy
- Login to post comments
- Reply by dachshundlady on December 05, 2011 at 7:03 am
-
Hurrah for the Masked Marvel again! I learned something too; never knew about the temp of butter vs the other ingredients. And I have one of the newer bundt pans; pretty but smaller. The first time I used it was also right after we had a security system installed. The cake overflowed, burned and set off the smoke alarm. Being a neophyte to the whole "security" business, I did not know how to disarm the alarm and/or to call the company. Next thing I knew the fire dept was here. Was my face red? Now I call the company and tell them to ignore my alarm for an hour whenever I bake things, like pie, that may drip and smoke. Live and learn. Get the larger bundt pan.
- Login to post comments
- Reply by mrscindy on December 05, 2011 at 8:02 am
-
The alarm thing made me laugh. We were out of town and, like a true dummy, I forgot to tell the maid service. I just never thought about it. Well, they set off the alarm, didn't have the code and the security company was calling the police. Bless her heart. The maid found my cell number (that I had given her years ago) and called me. She calmly explained while the alarm was shrieking in the background and asked for the code. After we got the alarm stopped, she explained, in fractured Spanglish, that the alarm company was on the house line and could I please stop them from calling the police. Such a mess! And, yes, my face was very red! Been there!
~Cindy :-))
- Login to post comments
- Reply by dachshundlady on December 05, 2011 at 9:11 am
-
But at least you did not cause the visit by burning something. I was new to the area and imagined what the firemen must have thought of my baking skills!
- Login to post comments
- Reply by mrscindy on December 05, 2011 at 11:07 am
-
Then fix the problem! Bake something and take it to them as a belated thank you for not laughing in your face. They probably laughed behind your back, but at least not to your face.
Seriously, bake a huge pan of brownies or cookies. They will love you for it. Not many peopl do things like that. Especially if it is a volunteer fire department.
~Cindy
- Login to post comments
- Reply by dachshundlady on December 05, 2011 at 1:49 pm
-
Good idea. Get a big disposable 10 X 15 pan . . .
- Login to post comments
- Reply by Weezer on December 05, 2011 at 4:55 pm
-
Thanks everyone for the comments. I will put the nordic-ware cake pan on my Christmas wish list, they are kinda expensive. One thing I forgot to mention about the results of my cake, the humidity was low, and the barometer was high, don't know if that had anything to do with it or not. Emiril said on his cooking show this morning, that humidity plays a role in cake mixing, and in bread mixing. I was so wanting everything to turn out right, that I wrote down everything I did with that cake, and it worked, sometimes we forget what we did when something goes right. I call them senior moments.lol
- Login to post comments
- Reply by dachshundlady on January 06, 2012 at 6:57 am
-
Gee, all this talk makes me want to buy some bleached flour and find a great poundcake recipe. Don't know where to start. And much as I like chocolate, I don't want marbled. Just regular plain poundcake.
- Login to post comments
- Reply by mrscindy on January 06, 2012 at 7:12 am
-
Okay, DL, here's a pound cake for you! The original 'pound' cake was just that. One pound each of flour, butter, sugar and eggs. I tried it once, but without KidPizza's suggestions and additions. If I were doing it now, knowing what he wanted done, it might turn out a little better, but it was pretty good as it stood. There are an abundance of Sour Cream Pound Cakes and many,many others from old cookbooks like Fanny Farmer and Joy of Cooking/Baking. If you want one i'll bet some of our members have a killer one posted in their recipes. Just wait a day or two and see what floods in! :-))
Nothing better than the perfect slice of pound cake piled high with strawberries or blueberries and whipped cream. Yum, yum, yum.
~Cindy
- Login to post comments
- Reply by dachshundlady on January 06, 2012 at 2:48 pm
-
Mmmmm. Love a slice with a cup of tea.
- Login to post comments
- Reply by Tom_B on February 21, 2012 at 12:36 am
-
I make a regular pound cake (1 pound each butter,eggs, sugar, flour).
Here is a *wonderful* cheat to a sweet, crispy outside of the pound cake. Use a bundt pan, as suggested previously, spray it with Baker's Joy and then "flour" the pan with granulated sugar. You want the same light even coverage as if it were flour on a regular cake pan.
Convection bake if you can.
- Login to post comments
- Login to post comments
