Cake Decorating Community - Cakes We Bake

Hi Everyone

This past weekend I baked a 9 by 12 inch rectangular shpaed cake, but each cake I baked was a little sunken in the centre, I had to stack the 3 cakes and add extra buttercream to the middle, to make the cakes level.

does this happen to you? what could the reason be for this?

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You are great, and the tip on coating the nails with a small amount of mineral oil, wow,,, do you any idea how many I throw away...lol.  

I have found that it helps to add about 2Tbsp of all purpose flour to my batter (approximately 9 cup recipe) - I haven't had to use the rose nails on larger cakes since I started doing that.

You see Sandra...... Iam not just a pretty face....   hee  hee

Sandra I. Vazquez Lossiseroni said:

You are great, and the tip on coating the nails with a small amount of mineral oil, wow,,, do you any idea how many I throw away...lol.  

Thank you June for your prompt reply. I've put this in my book of baking tricks and acknowledge you as the person who shared it. Thanks again. And best regards
-Victoria

Your very welcome. Glad to help.  :o)

We dont have all purpose flour in SA. Only self raising and cake flour

Lisa Seidling said:

I have found that it helps to add about 2Tbsp of all purpose flour to my batter (approximately 9 cup recipe) - I haven't had to use the rose nails on larger cakes since I started doing that.

Well Carlette

I am glad it works for Lisa, but I don't see how a couple of tblsp of flour will counteract a sinking problem. And as you say, all purpose flour is not always available world wide.

You can actually use cake flour (but not self-rising) without any problem at all (I use cake flour with my white cake recipe).  You need just a little more when using cake flour, about 1/2 TBSP.  This information came from a book called Bakewise by Shirley Corriher.  I just tweaked it a bit to work with my recipes.  You might need to play with the amount added to work perfectly with your recipe.  The theory behind adding the extra tidbit of flour is that it provides extra structure to the cake batter so that it does not rise too fast and then fall during the last stage of baking.  I started doing this when I noticed that the pieces of cake that had the rose nail in it had a slight metallic flavor, which concerned me a bit (but maybe the mineral oil mentioned tip by June would help with that).  I was throwing away rose nails about every 5 cakes that got baked with them.

You are right Lisa. I checked my "Cake Bible".  That small amount will work. After all 4 tblsp= 1/4 cup, so it is about the ratio. I also rub my rose nails well with my homemade cake release before I place them in my cake.

June, do you mean to add this 1/4 cup to the WASC? Or to the scratch recipe?

I used the cake release on my rose nails, but wish I had known about your mineral oil trick before I wasted money and threw them all out.  I really don't need them for anything but buttercream flowers now.   I have had perfect results every time with adding the extra tiny bit of flour - not one sunken cake since I started doing it.  

Sandra, to the full WASC recipe (2 boxes of mix), I end up using about 2 1/2 - 3 TBSP of extra flour.  I found that if I add the full 1/4 cup it makes the top of my cake crack, but I am sure it will depend on the altitude, your oven and the humidity in your area.  I use the same ratio for a scratch cake recipe If it calls for cake flour then I do use just a bit more, but only about 1/2 TBSP.  I just played with it until I found what worked.  

Lisa answered your question most adequately Sandra. Mineral oil is great Lisa. I rub it into my wooden counter top and chopping block. It won't go rancid.  :o)

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