Cake baking is one of the most enjoyable procedures to follow; there are many steps that one has to take in order to get that sweet, lovely and perfect cake. Although some cakes come out lovely and perfectly cooked others tend to be faulty. Having a faulty cake is not one of the best moments of the person making it but they always want to know what happened. Therefore let us get to know some of the common faults that occur and their causes.
Faults and Causes During Cake Making
Cake rising to a peak and cracked
This happens when the heat in the oven is too hot, or when the cake is placed to high in the oven.
Open and coarse texture
This happens because of four reasons: too much baking powder, wrong portion of fat to sugar or the flour to the liquid, insufficient creaming or the heat in the oven was too much.
Dry and crumbled texture
Curdled mixture, too much baking powder or the cake cooked slowly.
Sinking in the middle
This is very common in cake baking, some of the reason are: over creaming, too much baking powder causing the gluten to over stretch, too much liquid or opening the door of the oven before the cake is set, it allows air in causing it to sink.
Large hole in the cake
This commonly occurs when there was inadequate mixing of the flour or when the mixture was poured into the baking tin little portions at a time thus forming air pockets.
Fruits settling at the bottom of the cake
This happens when one uses wet fruits or when the mixture is too light for the fruits used.
Heavy and close texture
This happens for several reasons:
i. Insufficient creaming of fat and sugar or during the addition of eggs
ii. Insufficient raising agent used
iii. Too much liquid
iv. Low heat fro.m the oven
v. High heat from the oven thus forming a hard crust from the mixture before the air expands.
vi. Insufficient cooking.
Cakes have a very high rate of collapsing therefore one should ensure that they have followed the recipe procedure correctly for that good quality to be presented while cooking. Some of the most common faults can be done away with by adding the right measurement in the mixture to avoid disappointments in the end. Follow the recipes to the end for the best results.
