Butter and Oil Cakes
The cake has a cracked or peaked surface, or large tunnels.
Solutions: Try lowering the oven temperature, or decreasing the leavening. Encircling the pan with a cake strip (see Baking Equipment) will also prevent this.
The cake has a coarse grain and sunken center.
Solutions: Try increasing the oven temperature, or mixing the batter until well-combined, or use less leavening.
The cake has poor volume, and a compact structure.
Solutions: Check the date of your baking powder and replace it if it’s old, or try increasing the leavening. Be sure to use butter and eggs that are not cold.
The cake is dry, and the crust is tough.
Solutions: Use the right size pan; don’t use one larger than specified, and do not overbake the cake.
The bottom of the cake is burned and the batter is undercooked.
Solution: Place the cake pans at least 1 inch from the walls of the oven and each other to ensure adequate air circulation in the oven.
The cake is not even.
Solutions: Make sure your oven rack is level. Rotate the cake halfway around, two-thirds of the way through the baking time. (But do not do this with a génoise or chiffon cake or it will fall.)
There is a denser, darker, clearly demarcated layer of cake at the bottom of a chocolate cake.
Solutions: Mix the batter until thoroughly combined, using a silicone spatula to lift it up from the bottom of the bowl, and do not use cold butter.
The cake crumb is not even.
Solutions: There is often a space between the bottom of the beater and the bottom of the mixer bowl. After mixing the batter, be sure to reach down to the bottom of the bowl with a large silicone spatula to mix in any batter that might not have been incorporated thoroughly. For a two-layer cake, when filling the cake pans be sure to go back and forth between the two pans, rather than filling first one and then the other.
Cupcakes
Cupcakes brown too much, are too domed, and are not tender.
Solutions: Use bleached flour. It is best to make cupcakes in batches of no more than ten at a time because by the time the rest of the batter is placed in the pans, the leavening has started to react, which results in doming.
Cupcakes are too flat.
Solution: Allow the batter to rest for 20 minutes before baking.
Sponge Cakes
The cake does not rise enough.
Solutions: Beat for the amount of time specified in the recipe and work quickly but gently when incorporating the flour so that the batter does not deflate after aerating. When a meringue is used, be sure to use a grease-free bowl and beater. Do not open the oven door until after the minimum baking time.
The cake is not moist enough and the syrup is not evenly distributed.
Solutions: Use the amount of syrup indicated in the recipe and brush it on the cake a minimum of 1 day ahead of serving.
The angel food cake tube pan is not large enough for the angel food cake recipe.
Solutions: My recipe uses 1 egg white per cup capacity of the pan. (To get the volume of your pan, line it with a clean plastic bag and pour in water up to the top.) If your pan is smaller, simply decrease the ingredients proportionately, or bake any extra batter as cupcakes. Be sure to cool cupcakes upside down on a rack to ensure maximum volume. It’s useful to know that 16 beaten egg whites will rise to the very top of a 5 quart mixer. Be sure to weigh or measure the whites, as the proportion of whites to yolks can vary.
The chiffon cake or angel food cake fell out of the pan during cooling.
Solutions: Avoid making these cakes in a humid environment. Underbaking or overbaking will cause the cakes to fall out of the pan when cooling. Also, chiffon cakes and angel food cakes need to be suspended a minimum of 4 inches above the counter in a draft-free area, to allow for effective evaporation of steam. They need to cool completely before unmolding.
The chiffon cake didn’t rise enough.
Solutions: Use the correct amount of cream of tartar as indicated in the recipe, and beat until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised slowly. If not using cream of tartar, use 1 extra egg white (30 grams/2 tablespoons/30 ml) and beat only until curved peaks form. (Without cream of tartar, the beaten egg whites will be far less stable, and will collapse when folded into the rest of the mixture if beaten too stiffly.)
Cheesecakes
The cake splits, forming cracks.
Solution: Coating the sides of the pan with nonstick cooking spray allows the batter to pull away from the sides during baking instead of splitting in the middle.
Frosting
The frosting doesn’t go on smoothly.
Solution: Frosting is easiest to apply when it has the consistency of mayonnaise. Let it soften at room temperature, if necessary.