Patty Jo asks: I have attempted a hot milk cake recipe 4 times. Every time the end result is a heavy, dense, horrible-tasting cake. Any suggestions?
BakingSOS says: I have had problems with one of my favorite cake recipes turning out heavy, dense, and even RUBBERY, too. It’s very frustrating, isn’t it? I finally solved the problem by adding more leavening to the recipe to make the cake batter rise more. In the case of my cake recipe, it calls for only baking soda. I added baking powder, and now my cake rises perfectly every time.
Here’s the science that makes it work: baking soda is a “base.” It needs and “acid” ingredient in order to start the chemical reaction that makes it work, such as buttermilk, cocoa powder, lemon or orange juice, etc. If you add too MUCH baking soda, though, it will make your cake taste bitter. So if you need your cake to rise more, do NOT add more baking soda than is called for in the recipe. Instead, add baking powder, which contains both base AND acid leaveners. This will help your cake rise without making it taste bitter.
How much baking powder should you add? As a general rule, there should be 1 tsp. of baking powder or 1/4 tsp. of baking soda for every 1 C. of flour in the recipe. So take a look at your original recipe, see how much baking soda or baking powder it calls for per each cup of flour, and then add some additional baking powder as necessary to see if your cake will rise better.
Good luck!
Hi BakingSOS, I desperately need some help. I have tried to bake the hershey perfectly perfect chocolate cake for my mom because she loves chocolate. I have tried this recipe to a T for 3 times and the cake turns out heavy, wet, rubbery and absolutely disappointing. On the website, the cakes looks light and fluffu. I don’t know what I am doing wrong… Really hope to get some help from you. This recipe calls for both baking powder and soda. But it says to add wet ingredients to dry and mix it till smooth. Lastly to add boiling water. Will it work if I alternate the flour (dry mixture) with the eggs/vanilla/oil mixture? I really hope to bake this cake for my mom..
i meant fluffy*, sorry!
Hi Dee
Maybe I can help you with this.
I am not sure the science behind making more than a 1x batch of the Hershey’s cake – but anytime you do – it will always turn out rubbery and dense. I went to culinary school and that was one thing my chef instructor told me. She said that the Hershey’s chocolate cake is only good if you make a 1x batch. It does not turn out when you double it (or more). In school, if we wanted to make more than a 1x recipe, our chef would instruct us to do it one batch at a time for the best results. it worked.
[…] base–to counteract the acidity of the fruit or yogurt or sour cream. Please refer to my earlier post where I give a guide for how much baking soda (or baking powder) to […]
dee, trust me: if you follow instructions to the T, it will turn out just like the pic. I have made this hershey’s perfectly cake several times and it turns out ‘perfectly’ the same only because i followed procedures step by step, no fancy stuff i add. hope you don’t get discouraged.
I use a vanilla cake recipe and it doesn’t require baking soda or baking powder. is it okay to add it anyway?
Hi Judy-
Baking is such an exact science that I would not recommend adding any extra leavening agents (baking soda or baking powder) if your recipe does not call for it. However, having said that, it also makes me wonder: What DOES make your vanilla cake recipe rise if there is no baking powder or baking soda?
Perhaps you are using a spongecake recipe that uses whipped egg whites to leaven it?
The other question I have is: Does the cake turn out just fine without any baking powder or baking soda? Or does it seem heavy and dense? If the answer is that the cake is heavy and dense, you COULD try adding some baking powder to force the cake to rise more.
SOS, I made a 12 inch round that has a hard place in the center. My others did not turn out like this. ??? What happened? Anyone know? The hard place was solid and hard to cut thru. The over all cake was kinda heavy. But, the center solid spot is what puzzles me!
Thanx, for any suggestions!!
I have had the exact same problem with one of my favorite cake recipes. I have attempted a number of different fixes for this problem, and I shared my insights in this post. Thankfully, a few other readers shared their own insights into the problem, as well, so perhaps you can find some solutions there. However, without knowing the type of cake you are making, I’m not sure these solutions will address the exact problem you experienced. (my cake was similar to a sponge cake in that it is leavened with whipped egg whites–this may not be the case with your cake, depending on your recipe)
Since you said all of your other cakes turned out fine except for the 12-inch cake, it could also be a problem with the large volume of batter in the 12-inch pan moreso than a problem with the actual recipe. I assume you use the bake-even cake strips (such as these made by Wilton) when you bake larger cakes. They certainly help large cakes bake evenly, just as the name implies. That could be another potential solution.
Start by checking the solutions listed in my blog post–perhaps it could be a leavening issue. If that doesn’t work, we may need to look at the ingredients in the recipe and go from there.
Hello and thanks for the great post. I just made a cake from “The Cake Book” by Tish Boyle. I followed the recipe exactly except that I used Agave Nectar instead of sugar.
It has an amazing taste, however, it is heavy and a little rubbery. Have you ever used Agave Nectar and how did you get it to rise.
Thanks!
Hi Christina, This one is a stumper for me, unfortunately. I have never used Agave Nectar in place of sugar, so I cannot speak from experience to explain why your cake did not rise.
What I DO know is that baking is a very precise science: Each of the ingredients in a recipe serves specific functions, and when you make changes to those ingredients, it affects the final outcome of your product. So, for example, sugar not only provides sweetness to your cake. When sugar is creamed with butter, it creates air bubbles which also help a cake to rise when baked. If you eliminate the sugar from a “Creaming Method” recipe, the cake will be less likely to rise as much.
Perhaps this may have been the problem with your cake. You could try adding some more baking powder to the recipe to force the cake to rise more, but I cannot guarantee that the cake will taste the same. Too much baking powder can cause a product to turn yellow in color and taste bitter, so there is a fine line between using enough leavening and too much leavening.
My guideline when teaching baking classes is this: You should always follow a recipe exactly as it is written the first time you try any recipe. That way, you will know how the product is supposed to turn out. Then, once you have a baseline product for comparison, you can start to make changes to your own preferences.
If you make you own changes to a recipe the very first time you make that recipe, you will never know if problems are a result of a poorly written recipe (there are plenty of them out there, so don’t assume the recipe is good to start with!), or if problems are due to changes you have made.
I hope that helps!
Chef RB
Hi. I have a problem with any cake I make. They are always dense. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Sheridan, It is really tricky to diagnose what could be wrong without more information. The problem could be with your leavening agents–perhaps they are old and are no longer active. Try replacing your baking powder and baking soda with fresh containers and see if that makes a difference.
There could be so many other causes, as well, though…..it could be that your oven if it is not calibrated properly (baking at the wrong temperature); it could be a problem with the recipes you are using if they are not tested to be successful, though I doubt that could be the case for ALL of the cakes you make; it could be that you may not be mixing the cakes properly, but that depends more on the recipe instructions than on how you execute the recipes, I assume.
Hi can you help me please. Whenever I make a cake they always turn out heavy and claggy! The last cake I made was with self-raising flour not baking power etc. It should have been light and fluffy as I have tasted it like that made by someone else however, mine was not fluffy. I dont know what I do wrong any ideas?
Hi, Sarah. My experience with self-rising flour is that it needs to be used rather quickly in order for the leavening to remain effective. If the flour sits too long, it can lose it’s leavening ability over time. That is my best guess as to why your cake made with self-rising flour did not rise properly.
I suppose it is also possible that if you used self-rising flour in a recipe that calls for regular flour, it could be that the formula for self-rising flour may not have contained enough leavener for your specific recipe. I find that it is always difficult to make substitutions in baking and still achieve desirable results because baking is such an exact science! When it comes to the amount of flour and leavener called for in a recipe, it is best to stick with the recipe as it is written (including the type of flour called for) in order to achieve the best results.
Teresa, try using a heating core and/or bake even strips (wilton carries both) You should use a core with a 10″ or larger cake. It helps to distribute the heat. The bake even strips can be used on any size cake. They too, help to distribute the heat for even baking.
Now, I need some help! I have been making cakes for sometime and decorating them for sale. I have always used a modified recipe for a box cake with beautiful, moist, fluffy results! I decided to bake outside of the box for my daughters birthday cake. I have chosen 4 different recipes from a new cookbook…a white chocolate, spiced apple, mocha hazelnut battenburg and a banana lemon. I have made the first 3 and all have come out dense and heavy! Am I to assume that it is just generally a very poor cookbook, or am I doing something wrong? I have been baking for years and just am having a hard time convincing myself that it is me….please help!
Since you are an experienced baker and know your tools well (from your cake pans to your oven), it sounds more likely that the problem is the recipes rather than your equipment or your procedures.
Typically, recipes are well-tested before they are published in cookbooks. And if recipes are written well and tested first, they should produce desirable results for anyone making the recipes. But if 3 out of 3 recipes that you have made from this cookbook have all produced failures, I would second-guess how reliable the recipes are, just as you have.
The only thing I can guess is that each of the cakes you have tried to make all sound like they use atypical ingredients, meaning you are not testing straight-up recipes for a vanilla or chocolate or yellow cake, etc. Perhaps the recipes get a little more challenging when adding in more complex ingredients. I would suggest that you try a simple recipe for a plain chocolate or yellow cake from this cookbook and see how the basic recipes turn out. If they still flop, then you know the problem is the cookbook and not you. Good luck!
I have made a peanut butter fudge cake for years and it always comes up very heavy. It’s moist and tastes good, but it’s like a brick in your stomach. It calls for devil food cake mix, 3 eggs, buttermilk, veggie oil, and peanut butter cups chopped and folded in. I mix the recommended amount of time, 30secs on low, then 2min on medium and fold in the pb cups.
I bake for 34 minutes at 350*F. What am I doing wrong that is making it so heavy? The batter looks fluffy and whipped, but it doesn’t come out that way. It still tastes good though, as long as you have a glass of milk to wash it down. 🙂
Thanks for any help.
Hi. I’ve just baked a lemon loaf cake which came out dense and rubbery. This has never been an issue with other recipes, so I was wondering if the problem had anything to do with the weight/ oiliness of the lemon zest and juice required by the recipe? The recipe has been tested (it’s a Raymond Blanc recipe) and the result should be light and fluffy. However, the melted butter method, with added double cream, seems to produce a really heavy batter. There is only 1/2 tspn of baking powder stated in the recipe. Thanks for your help!
Hmmm, that’s a good question. Since you say there is only 1/2 tsp. of baking powder in the recipe, it sounds like there is not enough leavening in the recipe to make it rise fully. From the description, I would think a loaf cake would have a dense texture similar to a pound cake. But if the recipe says the results should be light and fluffy, then something is definitely wrong.
I would suggest adding more baking powder. I found that helped my own cake recipe when it would turn out dense and rubbery. It just needs more leavening assistance with some more baking powder. For every 1 Cup of flour in the recipe, there should be 1 tsp. of baking powder. Hope that helps!
My buttermilk pound cake does not have any baking powder. It has 3c flour, 1/4tsp baking soda,1/2 tsp salt,1c butter,3c sugar6 eggs,1c buttermilk. Its is light but heavy. Why is that? What do you mean by dense?
Thanks
Hi there, good question! Pound cake is different than other types of cakes: instead of being light and tender in texture like traditional cakes, pound cake is intentionally heavy and dense. It gets its name from the original recipe, which called for a pound of flour, a pound of sugar, a pound of butter, and a pound of eggs. There was no leavening to make the cake rise at all, which resulted in a dense, heavy loaf-style cake.
Your recipe calls for just a small amount of baking soda, probably to counter-act the acid in the buttermilk. I think your recipe is probably just fine as it is–a pound cake should be dense.
Hello, I am really trying to produce a really moist but dense cupcake. I have made several recipes and they come out light and fluffy, which is great. However, I am trying to achieve a more cake like cupcake….very moist but slightly dense. How can I achieve this?
Thanks
Could you please give me a really good vanilla cupcake recipe that i can measure in cups instead of grams ? Thanks
I really like the flavor and texture of this Moist Yellow Cake that I found on epicurious.com. Good luck!
Hi, I’m not sure I understand exactly what you’re looking for……when I think of a “cake-like” cupcake, I think of a texture that is light and fluffy, as you described. For a batter to be more dense, I think of something more like pound cake. Of course, the texture of cakes can vary as lot from one flavor to the next–whether you are looking for a white, yellow, or chocolate cake, or something else like carrot cake. I think the best way to achieve the texture you are looking for–regardless of the type of cake–is not to experiment with changing the ingredients in your existing recipe(s), but rather to keep trying different recipes until you find one that has the texture you prefer. It can be very challenging and frustrating to try to tweak the ingredients in an existing recipe to change the texture. You are better off simply trying different recipes until you find one you like.
For a moist chocolate cake, I like the Moosewood Restaurant’s Mississippi Mud Cake. Thanks to the Knowledge Center for sharing it on-line.
Baking SOS,
If I’m understanding you correctly you’re saying in order to make my cake rise I should add either 1 tsb baking powder or 1/4 tsb baking soda to my recipe? What if my recipe calls for baking powder already and its still not rising very high.
Hi there, let me try to explain again: I am not suggesting that you add an additional 1 tsp. of baking powder or 1/4 tsp. of baking soda to a recipe that already calls for baking powder.
Rather, this is a “formula” that can generally be applied to any baking recipe. The formula states that for every 1 Cup of flour in a recipe, there should be 1 tsp. of baking powder OR 1/4 tsp. of baking soda to make the baked good rise. So for example, If a recipe calls for 2 1/2 Cups of flour, there should also be 2 1/2 tsp. of baking powder in the recipe. If your recipe only calls for 2 tsp. of baking powder, you could try adding another 1/2 tsp. of baking powder to make the cake rise a little more.
I hope that makes more sense!
I made some corn bread using gluten-free flour, soy milk and flax seed for eggs, but it came out heavy. Everything I try comes out the same. I am allergic to all three. Please help. – Jim
Hi Jim, it is a real challenge to make baked goods that taste good and have a good texture, too, when you need to avoid so many allergenic ingredients. I understand your frustration.
The good news is that I was presented with this exact same challenge just last week when I catered a luncheon for a group of people that needed gluten-free and vegan cornbread. Even though I am a “purist” when it comes to baking–I like to use white flour, eggs, butter, etc.–I feel like my vegan, gluten-free cornbread recipe turned out pretty tasty, so I will share it with you here! (Note: This recipe does not have a substitute for eggs, so I was skeptical that the cornbread would be too “loose” with nothing to bind it together, but it turned out just fine.)
Vegan Cornbread
Ingredients
•1 cup of gluten-free all-purpose baking flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Brand, found in the Natural Foods section of the grocery store)
•1 cup of ground cornmeal
•2 tsp baking powder
•½ tsp salt
•¼ cup corn or vegetable oil
•¼ cup pure maple syrup
•1 cup soymilk
•1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
•1 cup sweet corn kernels
Directions:
1) In a mixing bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. 2) Add the vegetable oil, syrup, soymilk and vinegar; stir just until blended. Stir in corn kernels. 3) Pour batter into a greased 8×8 pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Yield: 9-16 servings
Baking SOS-
I am working on a science project that determines if you add baking soda in a cupcake recipe that calls for baking powder, will it make a difference, and I cant remember which cupcakes i put baking soda/powder in!!
any suggestions to help me determine which is which!
please answer ASAP!!!!
I hope I’m not too late to respond to your S.O.S. call for help!
It sounds like you are trying to determine which cupcake is which AFTER they have finished baking, is that right? If so, then you will probably have to go by color, taste, and how much the cupcakes rose (or didn’t, as the case may have been).
Visually and taste-wise, any baked good that contains too much baking powder will turn yellowish in color and taste bitter. But in your case, it sounds like your original recipe called for baking powder, so you would not experience this effect if you omitted the baking powder and substituted baking soda in its place.
So the next indicator will probably be how much the cupcakes rose. In order to detect which cupcake had baking soda and which had baking powder, you first need to know how each chemical leaving agent works.
Chemical leavening agents work by creating a chemical reaction between an acid ingredient and a base ingredient. When the two ingredients combine together, they create that chemical reaction that produces gases and air which cause baked goods to rise.
Baking powder contains both an acid and a base ingredient, so it contains everything necessary to make a baked good rise.
Baking soda, however, is only a base. It must be mixed with an acidic ingredient in the recipe (such as buttermilk, sour cream, cocoa powder, lemon juice, etc.) in order to activate the chemical leavening process.
So…..you should now have all the information you need to know–both to determine which cupcake is which, and ALSO to answer your science project question! (If you get a blue ribbon on your project, do I get some credit for answering it for you??!!) 🙂
[In case you didn’t figure it out on your own, the cupcake that didn’t rise as much should be the one where you substituted baking soda in place of the baking powder. If the recipe did not call for any other acidic ingredients to activate the baking soda, it would not rise as much as the cupcake with the baking powder. And the short answer to your science project is that baking soda and baking powder are NOT interchangeable. They each react differently in baking.]
hi, i tried baking a cake yesterday but failed miserably even though i baked the cake twice. the batter seemed dense in its liquid stage. then the other batter seemed good, and when they are in the oven the cake is lumpy, it rises in parts like mountains, but when its time to take out, its springs, but after cooling , it just goes hard, dense, and flat. i dont know whats happening? need help!
Hi there, it sounds like to most likely culprit is your leavening agent: either the baking powder or baking soda (depending on your recipe). If it is too old, it will lose it’s effectiveness over time, and that could explain why the cake appears to rise nicely in the oven but then falls flat once it cools. You could try purchasing new baking powder and/or baking soda to see if that might help.
Another possibility might be that the recipe simply does not call for enough baking powder or baking soda to help the cake stay risen once it bakes. The general rule of thumb is to use 1 tsp. of baking powder OR 1/4 tsp. of baking soda per 1 C. of flour in any recipe. You could check your recipe to see if it calls for enough baking powder or baking soda. If not, try adding a little more to see if you can force the cake to rise higher.
Please let me know if you find anything that works!
Hi! I’ve made my basic chocolate sponge thousand times no problem. This time I had a Huge batch.. 8 pounds. How does one incorporate flour n cocoa to the egg n sugar mixture so that it’s a smooth dough. Coz I tried circular method and a little bit of cut n fold but have ended up with lumps and rubbery mass at the bottom! Help me out …..pleaseeeee
thanks and im getting there, i have a question as to the different ways of making a cake. theres the one that you cream the butter and sugar, and there is the other way of adding the butter softened or oil to the flour which resembles crumbs or sand. which one is better, im barely opening my horizons to the cake world. i would really appreciate it a lot. thank you
I like cooking with baking soda but my cakes come out dry and heavy. What can I do.
Hi there, the method you described where the butter is creamed with the sugar is called the “Creaming Method.” It is a very common mixing method in many cake and cookie recipes, and I think it produces great results.
Another method is to mix all the wet ingredients together in one bowl, sift all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, and then mix the wet & dry together.
To be honest, I have not encountered recipes that call for the liquid fat to be combined with the dry ingredients until it looks like wet sand. My guess is that must be more common in other countries, perhaps? I wonder what our international readers think from their experiences? I’m curious!
Hi there, my suggestion would be to only use baking soda if a recipe calls for it. Baking poweder and baking soda are not interchangeable and will produce very different results if you try to substitute one for the other. You will get the best results if you follow the recipe. Baking is a science, and recipes are formulated to produce the best results when the ingredients are combined together just as the recipe specifies.
I have an interesting one for you, if you’re able to help would be much appreciated.
I came accross a low fat cake, a Protein Cake. From memory, the ingredients are as follows:-
1) 8 Egg whites and 1 Yolk
2) 100g of Strawberries
3) Couple shakes of Cinniman Powerder
4) 3 Scoops of Protein Powder (18g per scoop) Vanila / Chocolate
5) 30g of Milled Linwoods Flaxseed
6) 60g of Organic (best) Porridge Oats
7) Coconut Oil to grease the tin
The instructions are simple and clearly states to mix everything in a bowl and leave in fridge for 15 mins while heating oven to 200 Deg C. Bake on top shelf for 10 mins, then turn oven turn to 150 Deg C and bake a further 10 mins.
The issue
The end product is unlike the picture. It’s not fluffy, but dense and Rubber like.
What I did
I followed the reciepe above, using chocolate protien powder and made a second one using Banana Protein and bannana ilo Strawberries. I forgot to leave in fridge for 15 mins (for the ingredients to get to know eachother)
I mixed as it said in one bowl.
The flavours come through in the end result, but texture is WAY off and thus unedible.
Questions:-
1) I notice on one post above that baking powder and soda is mentioned. Can I use this despite not having Flower in the mix?
2) Should I beat / whisk eggs despte not being told to do so, in order to get air into mixture to make fluffy
3) did not placing in fridge for 15 mins have an issue (I think not)
4) The tin I used produced a cake thinner than that shown in picture. Maybe I should also buy a smaller diameter tin
5) Do you have any suggestions around making this work?
Thanks
Mark
ps nutritional facts for above (per serving 1/4 cake) are:-
192 Cals
4.5g Fat (3g good fats)
9.5g Carbs
5g Fibre
24g Protein
Hi Mark,
This is definitely an interesting challenge, as you said.
I have never heard of a “protein cake,” so I have no experience with such an invention. But as you mentioned, baking powder and/or baking soda are typically used in cakes to make them rise.
Since your recipe here varies so vastly from a typical cake, the only thing I can assume is that it is not actually a traditional “cake” per se. Rather, it sounds like a health food alternative to dessert, and it was simply given the title of “cake” to make it sound more appealing. 🙂 Furthermore, I would be skeptical that the photo attached to the recipe was actually accurate, meaning: perhaps someone just “lifted” a generic cake photo from the Internet to use along with the recipe–so that the photo does not actually represent the recipe itself. If that were the case, then the photo would be misleading, making you think that the cake should turn out light and fluffy, even though there is nothing in the recipe to make it so.
Lastly, I would suggest that you try to go back and find the original recipe to see if, perhaps, you inadvertently left out any ingredients when you attempted to write it down here from memory. Perhaps there is something in the recipe to make the cake rise, and we just don’t know since we don’t have the original recipe to refer to.
In answer to your question about whipping the egg whites: It is true that in some traditional cake recipes, the eggs whites are whipped separately to incorporate air, and then the beaten eggs whites are folded into the batter at the end. When the air bubbles expand during baking, it helps the cake rise somewhat. You could try that technique with this recipe, but I have no idea whether it would make much difference. The base recipe–with oats, flax seed, protein powder, and fruit–may be so heavy that it would be too dense to leaven it with whipped egg whites alone.
If you find that original recipe or find any solutions that work, please do share them!
Hi there, it sounds like the spongecake recipe does not adapt well to large scale batches.
I do know that when you multiply a recipe to significantly increase the outcome (as you have done here), it does not work well to simply multiply up to the amount you want to produce. I know that the ratio of ingredients needs to be adapted somehow when making huge batches. But I have not had personal experience with increasing the ratio of ingredients in a spongecake recipe to know what those ratios should be.
Perhaps a spongecake needs to be made in somewhat smaller batches over many times to yield the final amount you need. Or perhaps there may be some other resources out there to help you figure out how to increase the quantities of your recipe successfully. Any readers have any suggestions?
I want to bake a 7-up cake but it comes out dense and/or heavy, yuk! This recipe doesn’t call for baking power or baking soda!. So could I use 1 tsp baking powder ?
Hi there, interesting challenge….
I have never baked a 7-Up cake before, so I wasn’t sure what ingredients it calls for. I did a quick Google search and landed on the squidoo website that contains a variety of 7-Up cake recipes. Only one recipe calls for baking powder. The rest of the recipes seem to be some variation on a pound cake, which does not contain any leavening.
So here is my recommendation: If you want to follow the pound cake-style recipes, you will need to use the “Creaming Method” of mixing to incorporate air into the cake batter. The air that you whip into the batter as you mix it will be the only thing that makes the cake rise. (As the batter heats up in the oven, the air bubbles expand, pushing the cake batter up.) Keep in mind that pound cakes are more dense and heavy than traditional cake batters, so it sounds like that is to be expected with this type of recipe.
To use the Creaming Method: Place room-temperature butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. (If you don’t have a stand mixer, use a hand-held electric mixer.) Beat on medium speed for 8-10 minutes. It sounds like a long time, but the longer the butter & sugar mix, the more air you incorporate. This will ultimately produce a better batter.
Good luck!
Chef RB
My great grandmother’s hot milk cake recipe calls for 2 cups of flour sifted twice with 2 tsp baking powder, 1 stick of butter melted with 1 c milk. Sugar, vanilla and 4 eggs and a pinch of salt Always is light and tasty
I always have cook with gas and never had problems with my cakes, until now. Recently I moved and now cook with electric. Every cake I make comes out heavy and dense, no matter what recipe.
Hi there, I like to bake with gas, too, though electric ovens are supposed to be better for baking (more consistent and even heating).
I would suggest that you use an oven thermometer to check the actual temperature of the oven in your new place. Since you have no history with this oven, you have nothing to compare it to to gauge whether it is working properly or not. The best place to start is to get an actual reading of the temperature inside the oven by using an oven thermometer. It could be that the oven is not getting as hot as you set the temperature, and that would explain why the baked goods are not rising enough.
I just baked a banana yogurt cake but it turned out very dense and wet! I used cup cake tray instead of a big round pan, after I took out the cup cakes and found there is oil at the bottom of each cup cake mould! Do you know why was it happened?
I threw away all the cup cake and was frustrated!
Hi Jenny, I wish I knew why this happened, but it’s hard to say. It could be, perhaps, because you sprayed the cupcake liners with too much cooking spray and it puddled up in the bottom. Or it could have something to do with the ingredients you used. I don’t typically bake with yogurt, so I don’t know what kind of results that would produce. I also suspect the bananas could have any effect on the moisture content of the cupcakes–depending on whether you used fresh bananas, or whether you used bananas that had be previously frozen, which changes the chemical make-up of the bananas, releasing some of their moisture and making the batter seem wetter as a result.
The only real way to find out is to try making the recipe again and again, changing only 1 variable each time, until you achieve the results you want. By changing only 1 variable at a time, you can narrow it down to the culprit and find what does or does not work in this recipe.
Good luck!