12 of the most common cake baking mistakes fixed (2024)

From opening the oven door too early to using out-of-date ingredients, there are plenty of reasons why a beautiful cake can become a sunken disappointment.

The Good Housekeeping Cookery Team has identified some of your most common pitfalls when it comes to cake making, so you should get the perfect rise every time...

You’re not measuring your ingredients accurately

Too much flour or sugar can have a bigger negative effect on the finished product than you’d believe.

Follow the exact weights given in a recipe and don’t use cheap analogue scales that are hard to read. Digital scales that weigh in 1g increments are your best friend when baking.

Use calibrated measuring spoons rather than cutlery spoons. The latter isn’t a standard size and vary hugely in their capacity. We like the Tala Stainless Steel Measuring Spoon.

You’re substituting or adding extra ingredients

Unless you’re a truly seasoned baker, don’t be tempted to substitute one ingredient for another.

Oil and butter are both fats, but they don’t work in the same way (oil makes denser, moister cakes than butter) and you can’t substitute them gram for gram, either.

The type of sugar matters, too. If a recipe states caster sugar and you only have granulated, you’ll end up with a crunchy, speckled sponge with a denser texture.

Your raising agents are out-of-date

If you use baking powder past its sell-by date, your cakes won’t reach the dizzying heights they could have.

To check your baking powder hasn’t lost its mojo, mix 1tsp into 4tbsp of hot water and see if it bubbles up immediately.

You’re not following the method properly

If a recipe says beat eggs and sugar together for 5 minutes, or to wait for butter to cool before adding it to a mixture, then there’s generally a scientific reason why, and doing otherwise will result in a flop.

Follow the method to the letter.

You don’t know the difference between creaming, beating and folding

Creaming:

• Creaming is mixing butter and sugar together until it reaches the consistency desired by your recipe (usually ‘until pale and fluffy’) and is most effectively done using an electric whisk for a good few minutes.
• It traps air into the creamed mixture – the more you trap, the finer the texture of your cake.
• For an ethereally light sponge, try creaming the butter and sugar until the mixture is nearly white.

Beating:

• Beating refers to the process of adding eggs to the creamed sugar and fat. The best way to do this is to beat all your eggs in a jug first, then pour them into the bowl a little at a time, so the mixture doesn’t curdle.
• Again, an electric whisk works best here. You’re trying to incorporate and keep as much air in the batter as you can.

Folding

• Folding in flour and dry ingredients preserves all the precious air you’ve created in the cake batter so it rises as high as possible.
• Don’t use a wooden spoon or electric whisk to do this, and try not to be heavy-handed, otherwise, you’ll knock the air out.
• If you’re too vigorous, you’ll also make the texture of your cake tough. Instead, use a spatula in a gentle, slow and deliberate figure-of-eight motion, finishing with scrape around the edge of the bowl. Repeat this action until you can’t see any more flour, but don’t be tempted to over-mix.

Your ingredients aren’t at room temperature

Butter that’s too cold won’t cream properly and eggs that are straight from the fridge will make a mixture curdle, resulting in a coarse-textured, greasy cake that doesn’t have a good rise.

Plan ahead and have everything out at room temperature for a few hours before you start baking.

If you’re tight for time, try these simple hacks: pop the uncracked eggs in a bowl of warm tap water for a few mins to take off the chill, and put the butter in the microwave for short 20 seconds bursts on the defrost setting to soften it without melting it.

You’re not preparing your cake tin sufficiently

Different types of cake use different lining methods, normally outlined in your chosen recipe, so make sure you follow the instructions when given.

For a standard Victoria sponge, lightly grease the base and sides of the tin with butter or oil, and put a circle of baking parchment or greaseproof paper in the bottom that fits the base of the tin exactly. Use a good quality tin, like the Kitchen Craft Non-Stick Cake Tin.

You only need to line the sides of the tin for fruit cakes, deep sponges baked for celebration cakes or square bakes such as brownies.

If your sponge cakes seem to always have a dark, crunchy edge, then it’s likely you’re greasing the tin too generously.

You’re using the wrong size tin

We’ve all been there. You find a cake recipe that sounds amazing, but you don’t have the right size tin.

Think twice about using whatever you do have to hand. The size of the tin affects the cooking time and how thick or thin the sponge turns out.

Too small and your cake might burn at the top or overflow out of the pan, while still being a raw mess in the middle.

Choose one too big and it could end up a thin, dry pancake. Use the tin size stated in the recipe.

Your oven is the wrong temperature

All ovens vary to a degree, which is why a lot of baking times are approximate.

If your oven runs too hot or too cold, you may find that the cooking times are consistently too short or too long, respectively.

Invest in a reliable oven thermometer to check, like the Heston Blumenthal by Salter Oven Thermometer.

If you have a fan oven, most recipes will give you a slightly lower temperature to use, to account for the fact that these ovens run hotter.

If you have a gas or a conventional oven, cakes are best baked on the middle shelf, as the temperature of each shelf position varies (this is not the case with fan ovens, which have an even heat throughout). Get to know your oven and make sure you use the correct temperature for its make.

You’re opening the oven door too soon

Curiosity killed the cake. Open the door too early and you run the risk of having a cake with a permanently sunken middle.

It’s a good idea to let at least 3/4 of the cooking time pass before even thinking about opening the oven. If you find your cake isn’t cooked, don’t keep opening the door every minute to check – doing this makes the oven lose heat and lengthens the cooking time with each occurrence.

Wait at least another 5-10min, depending on how close you believe it is to being done.

Conversely, if your cake seems to be browning too quickly while still raw in the middle, cover the top of the tin with foil for the remainder of the cooking time.

You’re taking too long to put the cake in the oven

Cakes that don’t rise properly or have a surface covered in little holes are often the result of not getting the cake into the oven quickly enough; a common mistake that happens because you forgot to turn the oven on before you started, or you get distracted with something else mid-way through mixing.

Once the raising agents in the batter are activated and start to bubble up (usually when the baking powder or self-raising flour gets added to the liquid mixture), you need to capitalise on this chemical reaction quickly so that the heat of the oven can set the air bubbles in place before they pass.

Make sure your tin is prepared, the oven is preheated and all your ingredients are out before you begin baking.

You’re not using a reliable recipe

The internet is packed to the rafters with recipes. Odds are, picking one from a website you’ve never heard of before may mean that you were doomed to fail before you even opened your kitchen cupboard because it was never going to work.

Good Housekeeping recipes are all Triple-Tested, so you can rest assured that the delectable creation you’re about to whip up will be a roaring success.

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