They say you can teach an artist to bake, but you can’t teach a baker to be an artist. I’m not sure which category I fall into, all I know is that we can all use some help with baking sometimes. I got this chart in an email from The Baker’s Kitchen and I thought I’d share it. Happy baking!
Cake Baking Troubleshooting Guide
| Symptom |
Causes |
| Crust too dark | - Oven too hot. - Excessive top heat. |
| Cake too small | - Scaling weight too low. - Oven temperature too high. - Batter temperature too high. - Batter temperature too low. - Incorrect amount of water. |
| Cake burned on top | - Oven temperature too hot. - Incorrect amount of water. |
| Crust is shiny and sticky | - Oven temperature too cool. - Not baked long enough - Too much sugar in recipe. |
| Crust too thick | - Excessive baking time. |
| Cake falls during baking | - Excessive jarring or moving of the cake during baking. - Oven temperature too low. Excessive mixing of the batter. |
| Top of cake peaks and cracks | - Oven temperature was too hot. (the outside of the cake baked to form a crust too quickly. As mixture in center of the cake continued to cook and rise, it burst up through the top of the cake.) - Cake wasn’t baked on the center rack of the oven. |
| Cake shrinks | - Excessive liquid. - Batter too cold. - Oven too hot. - Improper mixing procedure. - Baked too long. |
| Cake rose unevenly | - Flour was not blended sufficiently into the main mixture. - Temperature inside the oven was uneven. - Oven temperature too high. |
| Cake stuck to the pan | - Improper greasing/flouring of pan. - Layers were cooled too long before trying to remove them. |
