So I've been making a Pistachio Cake (from BHG that I found somewhere on the web) with White Chocolate Buttercream that tastes fantastic, but the poor cake is cursed. The first time I made it, I forgot the pistachios (no, there's not a lot of brandy in the cake), so I grabbed it out of the oven (it had only been in there a couple of minutes), scraped it out of the pans, stirred in the missing nuts, and popped it back in the oven. Turned out okay, but fell in the center.
No worries, I thought, I'll just try again. After all, it *does* taste great. So I made it again tonight and left out a third of a cup of flour. In my own defense, my son was talking to me while I was measuring and somehow I added 2/3 and 2/3 and came up with 1 2/3 cups. Oops. So I made another batch (I was planning on a tiered cake anyway) and even though I added all the ingredients this time, the stupid thing fell in the center again, even in the 6-inch pans, which I wouldn't have thought possible. Stupid cake.
It really does taste great, but I am having no luck whatsoever with it and I'm wondering (other than the obvious, about adding all the ingredients) if anyone has any tips for me. It seems to be some sort of genoise or sponge (you beat the egg whites until stiff and then fold them into the batter) and I just can't seem to get the hang of it. Would cream of tartar help the egg whites stay inflated?
If it makes any difference, I'm baking at a little altitude (I'm in Denver), but my regular adjustments, which seem to work on my other cakes, just aren't cutting it.
Thanks in advance for the help!
Maybe it's just one of those days. I had one day where I made three cakes because I kept having problems. I couldn't figure out anything I was doing differently, they just weren't turning out the same. The ONLY thing I could think of that was different was that I'd had my windows open for a few days when I did the cake. Maybe the temp and humidity just threw things off? It was my only guess. From now on, I close the windows and turn on the air when I have to do a cake.
Have you ever made the cake before? Maybe it's just a crummy recipe. I tried one - TWICE - from a very famous baker and it was just awful. I decided there had to be a typo or something...I was doing everything right, and following directions carefully, and it still came out awful. Sometimes it's not your fault!
Hmmm... Hadn't thought about humidity before--it *was* kind of humid for Denver yesterday.
It *could* be a recipe problem, but this seems to be a problem I have with these sponge-type cakes in general. I wonder if it has something to do with the altitude.
Thanks for everyone's suggestions!
if it makes you feel any better, i am on my thrid trial today for an egg-free chocolate cake. I tried out two recipes and they both taste ok, but don't have a nice crumb quality and tend to stick to the pan.
I'd agree that some recipies just don't work out. I tried one from CMD several times and it fell everytime I used it. I don't mean the center caved in slightly, I mean the entire center of the cake sunk to the bottom of the pan and left my poor cakes looking like Mt. St. Helens AFTER the big blast. I finally just wrote "DO NOT USE" on the page and I've never done it since. Then again, it was a recipe for a Watergate cake....think there might be a connection?? lol
I think I'm going to need to find a new Pistachio Cake recipe--or a good exorcist. Not only was the cake cursed, when I went to make the frosting (on the assumption that I could mask all of the cake problems with a good buttercream), it was cursed too! First of all, I spilled the white chocolate custard (you cook egg yolks, milk, and sugar, then add white chocolate) all over the kitchen counter. After I got that cleaned up and the custard cooled (or so I thought), my butter was too warm and I don't think I chilled the custard long enough, b/c my frosting was runny. I put it in the fridge to set up (I'm nothing if not persistent), but then it was too stiff to spread, so my cake is all chunky. And it melts at room temperature... *sigh* Guess I won't be bringing a cake to my meeting tonight.
Thanks for listening!
Here are some tips for fallen cakes;
Over or underbeating too much or too little air is incorporated into batter.
Underbaking - oven temperature too low and / or too short a baking time. Probably not thoroughly cooked. Bake longer or reduce the heat by 25 degrees F and bake longer.
Over or under measurement of liquid or too much sugar. See How to Measure.
Too small a pan
Excessive jarring or moving of the cake during baking.
Opening the oven door before cake sets
Oven temperature too low.
Too much baking powder or baking soda Keep recipe close to 1 teaspoon baking powder or 1/4 teaspoon baking soda per cup of flour.
Excessive mixing of the batter.
Beaten egg whites - When you beat egg whites, their proteins unwind and join together loosely, making them very unstable. Make sure at least one of the egg whites is not beaten, but added with the liquid ingredients instead, to help stabilize its structure.
I'm in Denver too I know you need to add just a little more flower to any cakes hear, you should be able to pull it off with I think 1/4 a cup of flower and 2 tbs of water, I would look at the high alt. on the pre-mixed cakes but I have had that issue before.
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