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Why is my cake too dry?
I tried making this recipe: http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/gennaros-apple-cake-... last weekend and it came out perfect.
So I thought I'd change up a few ingredients (well, two). I substituted the normal self-raising flour for the same quantity of wholemeal flour (I only have plain so had to add some baking powder too) and I replaced the sugar with the same volume of Splenda.
The cake has come up OK and has a beautifully crusty top but it's come out a bit dry.
Should I maybe change the butter for the same amount of oil (say sunflower oil)? Or maybe add half-a-cup of milk? I've never been much of a baker but I'm trying to stop myself buying the overpriced (and excessively sugary) muffins at work.
7 Answers
- koalaLv 49 years agoFavorite Answer
Id say the difference is on the wholemeal flour, it is coarser so it depletes the cake from a bit more moisture. I wouldnt mess with the butter-oil.
- ckngbbblsLv 79 years ago
The first bit of advice I am going to give you is do NOT make substitutions to baking recipes unless you know what you are doing. Baking is a science and baking recipes are formulas that depend on exact amounts of various ingredients put together in the correct way to allow for a predictable outcome.
In stead of substituting flours, look up a recipe for cake that already uses whole meal flour.
Second, a dry cake is usually caused by not measuring correctly when measuring flour.
Your flour should be stirred before measuring.
You should NEVER scoop the flour with the measuring cup, always spoon it into the cup.
Never tap the cup to level the flour; use a knife to scrape across the cup.
In general, whole meal flour will yield a dryer cake because the whole grain absorbs more moisture than plain white flour does so making sure you measure accurately is doubly important.
- sweetrollLv 79 years ago
Baking is a bit of a science. The self rising flour has baking soda, baking powder and salt already in it. Regular flour does not and you might have need to add more than just more baking powder.
I would have used regular sugar.
If your going to make a cake, use the right ingredients.
Don't go with the apple sauce crap, it doesn't work. Add an extra egg.
- 9 years ago
Baking Powder sucks up moisture more than most flours do. The baking powder more than likely drained the moisture out of the wet ingredients leaving the cake to be a little dry. That is why you put the baking soda/powder box in the fridge, it sucks up moisture.
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- 9 years ago
All bakers will tell you that baking is more akin to science than art. You've got to stick to the recipe, you really can't add a pinch of this and a pinch of that as you would in cooking. Stick to the original recipe and if you do feel like playing around with it alter one ingredient at a time.
Source(s): Gordon Ramsay - 9 years ago
If a cake ever comes out too dry, boil 75g castar sugar to 100ml to water and brush over the top of the cake to make and keep moist.
Keep chilled too that will help.
Source(s): Professional baker
