Comments on: Why do cakes sink?

By: Janice

Janice — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 14:45:19 +0000

In reply to Jennifer. Yes! Me too! Either to bang the pan with cake batter or to swirl it on the counter before putting the pan in the oven. But the suggestion in the book was to drop the baked cake in the pan on the counter AFTER baking, which I still think is counterintuitive and doesn't seem to yield the result the author claims.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 02:25:15 +0000

In culinary school I was taught to drop the cakes prior to putting them into the oven (to help get rid of air bubbles in the batter prior to baking).

By: Bell

Bell — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 19:12:34 +0000

What about my favourite Jogurt cake? It collapses also!

By: Janice

Janice — Fri, 28 Jun 2019 18:59:56 +0000

In reply to Jairoop. Hi! So glad you enjoyed this post. I'm not a vegan baker but I would look into baking with aqua faba as an egg replacement if you want to make a fluffy sponge cake, which depends on eggs for leavening.

By: Jairoop

Jairoop — Fri, 28 Jun 2019 11:54:52 +0000

Hi Janice, Thank you for this post! I love to bake from the "science- based" angle too and this seems like home 🙂
I was just curious to know if you have experimented with vegan cake recipes. I have been trying a lot of recipes to make the perfect fluffy sponge cake, but something seems amiss, the fluff isn't happening!!
I would love to hear from you about this.

By: Tess Garraway

Tess Garraway — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 12:23:12 +0000

I once saw a chap on telly showing how to drop a cake onto the counter after baking. I recall this was to make it more ‘even’ and ‘spongy’.
Cakes are naturally going to shrink after the heat is taken away, so I expect shrinkage anyway since cold condensed.
I like your experiments, but I’m still going to stick up for the science involved. Perhaps you’re crater like cake may have been evened by the drop? I’ve had sponges look rather careful too.
But I do do the drop now. As a matter of choice and course. I get a sponges result!

By: Jabeve

Jabeve — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 01:34:57 +0000

I always drop my cakes from about 18 inches above the counter two or three times before I put them in the oven. This helps to remove the air bubbles and to bake evenly.

By: Sue

Sue — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 16:18:35 +0000

For chiffon cakes, I’ve found that if I reduce the speed of the mixer to slow towards the final minutes of the beating of the egg whites, I don’t get big air bubbles in the final product.

By: Isabelle @ Crumb

Isabelle @ Crumb — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 17:54:52 +0000

Phew. Glad to hear I don't have to resort to dropping my freshly-baked cakes on the counter to make sure they don't slump. :) The recommendation sounded totally counter-intuitive, but I suppose it was worth a try, given that the hypothesis wasn't entirely outlandish. I do find a good tap *before* the cake goes into the oven definitely helps a lot with air pockets. PS: If you need any help with ummm... disposing of your experimental cakes, I'd happily volunteer my services. In the name of science and all that. Obviously.

By: Olivia @ livforcake

Olivia @ livforcake — Sat, 12 Mar 2016 18:22:29 +0000

You know, I've been curious about this as well! Interesting to see that it actually causes it to collapse more. I love your baking science posts!! I am a bit of a baking nerd myself, so I love to read them. Super informative and I love the video!