Hi! I'm not new to cake making and I've made plenty of cakes without them sinking. This time, my cake rose but the top stayed flat during baking. Toward the end of the baking time it would sink and would continue to sink after I removed it from the oven. I use an oven thermometer so I don't think oven temp is the problem. I also checked it with the toothpick test before I removed the cake and it came out clean. I also tried pressing the top to see if the cake would spring back and it did. I did some research and I found out that old baking powder might be the problem so I tested my baking powder and it's fine. It rapidly fizzed when I put a little in boiling water. Any other suggestions? Thanks!
If it was sinking during baking, then too much moisture could be the cause. But here's the tricky part, the moisture problem can be caused by too much sugar. Sugar is hygroscopic, so it will suck up the moisture in the batter. The result is less moisture for the flour's protein and starch to build the gluten structure. Without the structure, the cake falls. Was your crust really brown? Sticky! If so, those areother tell-tale signs of too much sugar.
Over creaming, too much aeration and too much leavening are also causes of sinking cake.
Siftandwisk2: My crust was not overly brown or sticky but I think the recipe might have too much leaving or aeration. There are 1 1/3 cups (6.5oz) of flour to 2 teaspoons baking powder. (I weighed my flour) The basic outline of the recipe is a bit complicated but, basically you melt the butter with the milk and let it cool to 180-185 F whisking occasionally to keep it emulsified. Then, over a double boiler, whisk the eggs, vanilla, and sugar(which also happens to be 1 1/3 cups: same amount of sugar and flour) until it reaches 110 F. Then you whisk on high in a stand mixer until the mixture reaches 80 F(the mixture almost double in volume after this step). Then you add the flour and lastly the milk/butter mixture. The cakes had good flavor and they were really light and fluffy but it could have too much aeration or leavening. Thanks!
Your sugar to flour ratio sounds right. It sounds like a foam cake: low quantity of flour; heated egg and sugar beaten to double volume.
Leavening isn't added to a foam cake. And too, the general rule is 1 teaspoon of baking powder to 1 cup of flour. Your recipe has twice as much baking powder!
Since you like the cake flavor, I'd recommend experimenting with the recipe. Start be reducing leavening by half or even eliminate the leavening.
Happy to be of any help I too love the science behind baking Hope you get the cake to work
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