You prepare some spectacular cakes, but they never grow enough, and you are always left with the doubt: “why is it?” Clear that culinary enigma and discover all the tricks to make the cake rise a lot. By knowing them, you will probably also detect your possible errors.
In addition, these indications will also serve you gluten-free cakes, providing you with a very fluffy and tall final product. What are you waiting for? Run to the kitchen to put each of these tricks to the test and surprise your guests with a spectacular dessert. Oh, and don’t forget to share this information so that everyone knows these simple tricks to make the cake rise a lot.
How to make a cake rise evenly?
If the recipe does not indicate otherwise, practice this advice, as this will prevent the dough from being cut during some time during its preparation. Therefore, before you start preparing your cake, keep in mind that you should always remove the ingredients from the fridge well in advance. Practice this, especially with the eggs, leaving them at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Accurately weigh or measure ingredients
Although creativity is very valuable in professional baking, precision is also very important, both in the process itself and in the quantity of each ingredient, since any excess or omission can change the final result of a recipe. For this reason, among our tricks to get a high and spongy cake, we highlight acquiring a scale or measuring utensils (cup and spoons), as they are more reliable than conventional utensils.
Not sure which one to choose? If you weigh the food, you will have much more exact amounts. On the other hand, if you prefer to measure them, you need to be guided by comparative tables since each occupies a different volume than the other. That is, 1 cup of wheat flour does not weigh the same as 1 cup of whole wheat flour, nor does both weigh the same as 1 cup of rice.
Use the correct flour
The flour indicated to prepare a cake that rises a lot is all-purpose flour, also known as 0000 flour, loose flour or flour without strength. Why? This type of flour contains less than 8% gluten. In this way, the dough is lighter. Most cakes grow and fluff more if they contain less gluten, except kasutera or castella cake, which uses flour 000 (bread flour).
A very interesting extra fact is that gluten-free cakes can be identical to a conventional one by replacing the flour and, sometimes, also varying the amounts. Since they are gluten-free, it makes for a tall and fluffy cake.
Buy quality ingredients
In every recipe, it is essential to use optimal products: well harvested, processed or handled, packaged, and stored. Foods that retain all their essential characteristics and thus denote their freshness are other tricks that we must take into account. Bad eggs, outdated flour or traces of mold from poor storage will slow the growth of any cake and ruin it completely.
Use baking powder properly
Baking powder or baking powder is directly related to the volume of most cakes, so it is vital to know it well. So, keep in mind the following tricks so that the cake rises a lot:
Check the expiration date of the yeast. If its time of use has passed, it will not work or at least its effect will be less. In both cases, it will affect the height and texture of the cake.
Don’t confuse baking powder with baker’s yeast. Although both fulfill the same function (incorporating air into the preparations), they have different compositions, carry out the process in different ways, and serve specific preparations. For example, yeast contains microorganisms, adds air through alcoholic fermentation, and is used in bakery products: bread and pastries. On the other hand, baking powder is a chemical product. It adds air being activated mainly with heat and is exclusively used for sponge cakes, cupcakes, pancakes, etc. This product is known as chemical yeast in many countries, but it should not be confused with fresh or dry yeast anyway. Discover the types of yeast in this other article.
Learn how chemical boosters work. Some are activated with heat (oven) and others with acidic ingredients (lemon, vinegar, eggs). Use this reference so as not to interrupt the drive process and consequently the growth of the cake. For example, if you use an impeller that is activated by an acidic ingredient, such as baking soda, don’t wait too long to bake it, as it will lose strength and height.
Use the precise amount of chemical yeast. Excess yeast can cause the cake to rise in the oven and sink when it comes out. In the same way, little yeast will make the cake not grow.
Add air to the mix
For many bakery products, the incorporation of air into the mix determines its height, volume and fluffiness. For that reason, if it comes to tricks so that the cake rises a lot, this can be considered number one. This trick is accomplished through several techniques: creaming the butter, whisking the egg yolks, whites until stiff, sifting the dry ingredients, and baking powder.
Generally, the aeration of the eggs or cream of the butter is combined with the sieving of the dry ingredients and the baking powder. However, in Asian pastries, in some recipes, extra fluffy and tall cakes are obtained using only the beating of eggs and sieved, thus dispensing with yeast. On the other hand, if it is express cakes blended in a blender or with rods, but without much care, yeast is essential to achieve a good result.
Beat the mixture properly
Some people believe that incorporating air into the preparation means mixing a lot, which means mixing just enough. Reducing or exceeding this procedure can cause the growth of our dessert to slow down or, even worse, it can cause it to sink. Thinking about all this, here are the main tricks so that the cake rises a lot during the shake:
Aerated mixes
Use the right utensils. Prefer a balloon rod and a very deep bowl, as they will favor the incorporation of air. Also, use impeccable and dry utensils (without traces of grease or liquids).
Start at low or medium-low speed. This technique allows the formation of small air bubbles, which provide stability due to their size. When the preparation reaches more volume, change the speed to high.
Beat the plain butter or plain eggs first before adding the sugar. If it’s airy mixes, this will give them body and a stable base to grow on.
Add the sugar little by little and dissolve it completely. Thus, you prevent the preparation from sinking or losing air.
Check if the preparation is ready. Aerated mixes are ready when they double or triple in size, lighten their color, take on a certain shine, and completely dissolve the sugar. Additionally, each one has the characteristics that denote it: firm peaks, creamy buttery creamy and light texture, and creamier texture egg shake.
Once the funeral is ready, add the eggs one by one. In this type of mixture, you must add the eggs like this. Otherwise you will lose acquired air.
Incorporation of wheat flour
As soon as you add this ingredient, beat just enough until it is integrated into the preparation since the gluten should not develop, but neither should any lumps remain. Add the flour in three batches and preferably sift it again in each. If you use a mixer, apply low speed. All this ensures that the air cells created are not destroyed and, consequently, the cake becomes caked and does not grow.
Incorporation of the whites
If you have a preparation with whites to the point of snow and add them to the mixture containing the flour, do it in 3-4 batches and slowly. On each occasion, make enveloping and careful movements, in this way you will not lose the air you have achieved. Of course, everything must be very well integrated.
Choose a mold of the right size
If you use a very large one, the dough will spread too much and will not rise. On the other hand, if you select a very small mold and fill it to the brim, during cooking, it will rise and spill, thus wasting part of the mixture and, therefore, the cake will lose height or sink in the center. For these reasons, calculate very well the dough you have before choosing the mold through a conversion or using a table of molds according to the approximate weight of a cake. Likewise, you can always ask the author of the recipe what mold they used if not indicated.
Pre-heat the oven
Keeping the temperature constant during baking can be considered one of the most important tricks to making the cake rise. In this sense, pre-heating the oven is the beginning of the cooking stage because, if you introduce the mixture cold, the cake will take much longer to cook, but it can also affect the activation of the yeast and perhaps the cake will not. Grow up enough. For this reason, pre-heat the oven 10 minutes before baking.
Use the right temperature during baking
Sometimes a recipe tells us a cooking time that fails and not because it is wrong, but because each oven has a different intensity of heat. For this, there are two solutions: buy an oven thermometer or rehearse many times with your oven until you know it completely.
For all the above, if the cake sinks when you remove it from the oven, the temperature was probably too high, so it browned on the outside and did not cook on the inside. On the other hand, if it sinks to while you bake it, the temperature was too low.
At this point, we can ask ourselves if for sponge cake, air oven or not? The air allows the oven heat to be distributed evenly, so if our oven cannot heat evenly, it can be a good solution.
Never open the oven ahead of time
If you are impatient and open the oven before completing 2/3 of the set time, apart from the fact that you will not get a tall cake, it will surely sink. Why does this happen? Because you interrupt the action of chemical yeast due to a temperature variation. In addition, you also slow down the coagulation process of the egg proteins (mainly responsible for the structure of the cake), which occurs during the first 30 minutes of cooking.
Never let the cake cool in the mold for more than 10 minutes
Among our tricks so that the cake rises a lot, this may seem minor, but it visibly affects the appearance of our cake. Why? If you leave it to cool inside the mold, the humidity will be produced by the temperature contrast. The crumb will get wet, and, as a result, the cake may shrink a little and/or flake.