Please tell why all the air bubbles...I've been baking for decades, even had licensed home bakery...this is my go to recipe for 30 yrs...all of a sudden I'm getting these air bubbles. I'm to the point where I'm losing my passion because this is driving me mad! I haven't changed a single thing as far as oven, temps, ingredients, mixing method, nothing. I bang the pan, I run a knife through batter, everything I've ever heard to do and STILL GET THESE! Help
Again, I am clueless. Maybe someone more experienced can offer insight. I am pretty useless today :o(
are you sifting the powders? baking powder smooth as silk?
I use Swans Down cake flour and I sift dry ingredients 3 times (always have) I don't overmix and all my ingredients are cool room temp. I weigh everything by grams for consistancy. I'm a texture freak and my cakes have always had the most beautiful texture when sliced. Now these ugly holes are embarrassing me!
Crying in GA
Ma'am, I'll use my old answer, because the problem is the same. Do not get frustrated, this is going to keep happening over and over! You are the same... but your ingredients are not!!! Stop crying... if someone complains about the holes, just say those are the new trend!
From back in December I guess...
Hey MamaGeese, I support everything K8Memphis said about mechanical ways to get the bubbles out of the batter.
Sometimes, the problem is not mechanical, but chemical. Have you switched your baking powder brand?, or the one that you are using is old? How long was your flour sitting on the shelf, were your eggs from a young or old hen? Those tunnels you see are just trapped air. That trapped air may have mechanical causes, like big bubbles of air trapped during the mixing process. The advice of K8Memphis will help you get rid of those. Those mechanical bubbles are mainly due to overmixing. Why?, simple, when you overmix, you develop the gluten in you flour and that makes the batter thicker, hence, the big bubbles are not only trapped, but stabilized in the batter.
The chemical process is different. You did everything perfect mixing your batter, your method, you mixer, your time, etc. But a chemical reaction (and there are hundreds! happening during baking) might cause those undesirable tunnels. If your flour has a slightly higher protein content, the starches are going to gelatinize before the baking powder acts properly, causing an accumulation of gasses in a particular area. What failed? in this case was your flour.... But I always use the same brand!, you say. But you flour is not exactly the same. every flour batch is composed of different providers, grown in different areas of the country, that are sometimes affected by drought, heavy rain, pollution, pests, etc. There is a range of composition, but it is never exactly the same. If your flour was fine, then your eggs might fail, sometimes the consistency and leavening power of egg depends of the age, and even how that poor hen was fed and kept, what breed of poultry, etc. I could keep going for hours on every possible thing that can go wrong.
My point here is that there are things in baking that are out of your hands. The quality of products the last few years have been seriously affected. The competition among prices and brands made and enormous damage in the quality of products. Baking might be cheaper these days, but is also riskier. Also the climate change and human interactions with the environment has a deep effect in the quality of products we get on the table. Not to count that the processes involved in the mass production of goods have been changed in order to make more for less.... who cares about quality?
My big advice... You are not doing anything wrong. DO NOT STOP BAKING! Do the best you can, and understand that there are many thing in baking and in life that we cannot control. Do not get discourage, put a big smile on your Mama face and keep baking!
Thanks, I'm sure I won't stop, I am just mad...it is true that ALL manufacturers are cutting every corner they can, I'm just old school and remember how good things used to be...remember the old Crisco? How rich vanilla extract used to be? The old Hershey's cocoa in silver canister? Even cake mixes used to be good.. I have even noticed on my high quality sugar that I've always used...it seems to have some kind of dust coming off of it that it never did before. It seems eggs now have larger whites and smaller yolks. I'm 65 so I remember the good days of old. Thank you for taking the time to write me such a thorough reply. I will try to quit worrying so much...
Out of curiosity MamaGeese. Did you actually “taste” the cake???? Even though the air bubbles might look unsightly, cake may taste fine. The bubbles can easily be hidden with icing/ganache. I’m going to be 70 in a few months, and I agree that I remember when the BIG companies cared about the quality of their products. Now, you don’t know who owns what. Giant conglomerate companies intent on making money, less on quality.
Yes the cake tastes fine, maybe a shade more dry, but people still rave over it. The texture is just more coarse than I like. I tried using the reverse creaming method because that always has a tighter crumb, but I got the same result. I think I'll try a different flour and baking powder and see if that helps. Thanks everyone!
mg -- i didn't pay much attention to bubbles in my cakes -- it's ok
just for the record
I think is is odd that some of you are experiencing holes in your cakes because I have not seen any change in mine at all?????
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