How To Bake Better Cakes

Once I started baking classes in culinary school, I was surprised by some of the simple tips and tricks I learned that I never saw in any recipes I had made at home. Sure, some of them are things people kind of, sort of do sometimes, but there are some pretty basic things you can do that will make your cakes and cupcakes turn out consistently better. Here are a few everyone can benefit from.

• PREHEAT YOUR OVEN AND MAKE SURE IT’S ACCURATE My oven doesn’t take too long to get up to 350℉. It beeps when it’s ready and I’m all set to bake! Except when it beeps, it turns out my oven is somewhere around 300°. It doesn’t get up to the correct temperature for a few more minutes. How do I know? Because I keep an oven thermometer in every oven I’ve ever had at home. Gas ovens can be especially inaccurate.  A few years back, a friend of mine bought a brand new condominium. Brand new, never used appliances in the whole place. The first time he used the oven, he noticed it took him much longer than expected to bake anything. He bought a simple oven thermometer and was surprised to find that his shiny new fancy oven was almost 40° lower than what it was set at. FORTY DEGREES! So if he had to bake something at 350°, he would set it for 390°, let it preheat and sure enough, he would have an actual oven temperature of 350. From then on, everything he made turned out right and the bake times lined up with what his recipes said. So spend a few dollars, get an oven thermometer, and make sure your oven is up to temperature before you put anything in.
• WEIGH YOUR DRY INGREDIENTS So many home bakers, many good ones even, seem averse to weighing their ingredients. We’re just used to measuring cups and spoons. But the problem is not everyone scoops dry ingredients the same way. Whether you scoop and level off, scoop and shake (my preferred method), press the cup into the flour/sugar/whatever until it’s full, you may actually be getting the wrong amount. Inconsistencies in the amount of your ingredients is never good in baking, but especially in gluten free baking. So I always weigh my flours. And usually my sugar. Almost never other dry ingredients when I’m baking at home, but that’s just a speed and efficiency thing. You don’t need a fancy scale. Decent digital food scales that do ounces, pounds, grams and milliliters are available for as little as $10-20. Of course, with that low price comes a decrease in durability and accuracy to several decimal places, but they will get the job done. The volume measurements for all of the various flours in my recipes are the closest approximation. I have the weight for each flour listed in grams at the end of each line.
• SIFT YOUR DRY INGREDIENTS Sifting is crucial for two reasons. It breaks up any clumps, which is an even bigger problem with some gluten free flours, and it aerates the dry ingredients. Your cakes will be easier to mix and will not turn out as dense. It’s a win/win.
• COLD LIQUIDS=BIGGER, FLUFFIER CAKES The colder your cake batter is, the more it will rise in the oven before it starts to set. You will end up with a slightly larger cake with a softer texture. There are a few ways to do this. You could chill your batter after mixing. You could use chilled bands that wrap around your cake pans. Or you can just use cold liquids. I measure out my liquids first, then put them in the freezer while I preheat the oven, prep my pans, measure out my dry ingredients, etc. But if I forget, I’ll just throw the bowl of batter in the fridge for a few minutes before scooping or pouring it out. Speaking of scoops…

• BUY SCOOPS FOR YOUR CUPCAKES AND SAVE YOURSELF A LOT OF HEADACHES That was an unintentional rhyme, but I’m sticking with it. I have two scoops in my kitchen at home. A #16 that I use for all full size cupcakes and muffins and a smaller one (it’s not marked, but I think it’s a #40) for cookies and mini cupcakes. You could go a little bit smaller (20 and 50), but that is totally up to you. Scoops will speed things up and give you consistently sized cupcakes or cookies.
• SPRAY THE SIDE OF YOUR CAKE PANS AND LINE THE BOTTOMS The easiest way to get your cakes to depan easily. You can buy parchment paper liners for different sized cake pans, but it’s easy to cut your own and doesn’t create as much clutter in your kitchen. Cut or tear a piece of parchment that’s about the same size of your cake pan. Fold it in half, then fold it in half again. Put the corner where the folds meet against the center of the bottom of the pan and use scissors to trim the loose edges in a circular shape. Unfold it and voila! A misshapen, lumpy “circle.” But that’s okay! You just need something that will cover the bottom of the pan. You don’t want it too big where it creeps up the sides of the pan a bit (the batter will probably find it’s way in the gap it creates and under your parchment, ruining the whole point of doing this), but a little bit smaller than the bottom is okay. Now oil the sides of the pan, put the parchment in the bottom, using any excess oil on the bottom to get it to stick in place and your are ready to go.
• LET YOUR CAKE COOL IN THE PAN, BUT ONLY AS LONG AS NECESSARY Once your cake or cupcakes are cool enough to take out of the pan, do it. For cupcakes, just 5-10 minutes after they’re out of the oven is usually enough to take them out. Cakes need a bit more time. Generally, if I can pick the pan without using oven mitts, it’s cool enough to depan. For cakes, it never hurts to carefully run a knife or spatula around the edge of the pan before removing it just to reduce the chances of the sides sticking and the cake crumbling. If you followed the previous step perfectly, you shouldn’t have that problem. But it doesn’t hurt to be a little cautious.
• DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT APPLYING FROSTING UNTIL YOUR CAKE IS ROOM TEMPERATURE If your cake is even slightly warm still, the frosting will start to melt. If you have to frost as soon as possible, stick your cake in the fridge or freezer for a bit after depanning. Trust me on this. “It’s only a little warm” is usually followed by “WHY IS MY FROSTING FALLING OFF! THIS CAKE IS A HIDEOUS WRECK AND I AM A FAILURE AT LIFE!” Or something along those lines. Before you frost a cake, you need to…
• TRIM THE TOPS OF YOUR CAKES WHEN LAYERING That domed part on the top of your cake? Chop it off. “But that’s wasteful!” you say. It’s still cake. Eat it. Make cake balls or pops. Whatever you want. But cut off the top of all your cakes. It’s the only way you are going to stack the layers and not have it lopsided or have to use a ton of frosting to fill in the gaps. Trim the tops off (serrated knife in one hand, other on the top of the cake, slice about halfway through, rotate, repeat until the top is removed), brush off any loose crumbs, put the bottom layer cut side up, frost, repeat this process until the top layer, which goes cut side down (the smooth bottom of the cake will be easier to frost and will shed less crumbs). If all goes well, your cake will be nice and straight and level.

• WANT YOUR CAKE TO STAY EXTRA MOIST? SIMPLE SYRUP IS YOUR NEW BEST FRIEND If you brush the top of each layer of a cake with simple syrup, it adds moisture and sweetness (and can add flavor, depending on the syrup). This is especially good if you’re making the cake a couple of days in advance, or you know it will take a few days to eat all of. This is the tip of mine that I use the least, but that’s because cakes don’t usually last long enough in my house to bother. But it works. Alternately, you could bake your cakes or cupcakes days or even weeks ahead of time, wrap and freeze them once they have cooled, then let them thaw before frosting. Insider secret: This is what a lot of bakeries do. That little bakery you love is probably not baking 10 different flavors of cake every day. And if they are, they probably are not going to last long.