8 Common Mistakes To Avoid While Baking A Cake At Home

There is nothing like a freshly baked cake at home. It is enough to lighten up everyone's faces and act like a bonding agent in the family. Also baking a cake is extremely fun as you get to mix so many ingredients together and see it become something so beautiful that it is almost therapeutic. But baking is anything but easy. While baking a cake you have to take care of a lot of things to make sure you get a fresh and fluffy cake out of the oven. Here are some common baking blunders that most people make and the ways you can avoid them.

1. Not preheating the oven

Preheating the oven is very important. After you make the batter, the oven has to be heated to a particular temperature for it to be cooked properly. Keeping the mixture in a cold oven and heating it suddenly will not give you the best cake possible. Instead, you have to preheat the oven to a particular temperature before keeping the mixture in it. Not preheating the oven increases the chances of the cake being overcooked or undercooked. 

2. Not measuring the ingredients properly

Measurement in baking is as important as it is in geometry. You can never undermine the importance of measuring ingredients properly while baking. Always try to stick to the recipe specifications. Get measurement cups and use them to pour every ingredient into the mixture. Do not just randomly go by your intuition and use normal spoons to measure your ingredients. Your cake will end up tasting very weird and also will not get fluffy enough.

3. Using hot trays

When we are cooking multiple batches of cakes and muffins, we mostly use the same tray to pour the mixture and keep it directly in the oven. But this is a huge mistake as the batter starts to melt even before it's placed in the oven. Make sure that you run the tray under cold water and let it cool for some time before using it again. Small things like these make a huge impact on the quality of things that you make.

4. Opening the oven too quickly

Try not to open the oven to check if it's cooked or not before time. Opening the oven and checking the cake disturbs the whole cooking process. Try to avoid touching the cake before its top feels firm from a distance. To check if the cake has been cooked or not, you can use a toothpick and insert it inside the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, then your cake is properly cooked.

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5. The batter does not have enough air

The most common cause of the cake not getting cooked properly is the batter not having enough air. Try to whisk your batter as much as you can so that there is enough air in the batter. Also, make sure that the eggs that you are using are at room temperature and not too cold. In some cases, the problem is too much air. If you see the cake mixture is full of air bubbles, then gently tap the cake on the bench as it will help in releasing any excess air trapped.

6. Follow the order of ingredients

Just like it is important to take care of the quantity of the ingredients that have to be put in the batter, it is equally important to take care of the order that is mentioned in the recipe. For instance, if the recipe specifies using sugar before eggs, you have to do it similarly. do not put ingredients as per your own choice because it will disturb the flow of the recipe. Each ingredient is added at a particular time because of a particular reason.

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7. Know all your ingredients properly

A lot of people confuse baking soda with baking powder. Do not ever make this mistake. Know all the ingredients used in your recipe properly. Also, make sure that you know of all the substitutes for the ingredients used in your baking. This helps you in times of emergency when you have to bake a cake instantly but do not have all the ingredients ready. Also, different types of cakes need different types of fats. For example, pastry dough doesn't need liquid fat like oil, but it needs solid fat like butter.

8. Not rotating your baking pan

One of the most common problems encountered during the baking process is uneven baking of the cake. This results in the cake being burnt from some side undercooked from some side and overcooked from the other side. It is highly unlikely that the oven will cook the cake evenly from all sides. This is why you must keep the pan rotating through your baking sessions to make sure that the cake is being evenly cooked. 

These are some baking tips that you must keep in mind while baking a cake or muffins at home. All of these tips will help you in making the most immaculate and delectable cakes at home.