Cake Baking Tips

• The average baking time for cakes is 20-30 minutes.
• Before preheating the oven, always check for stray items like toothpicks (they might have fallen in while you were testing previous cakes), cupcakes in muffin trays (they might have been left in accidentally), large pieces of fallen cake, etc.
• Also remove items from around and on the oven (if you’re using an electric oven). Nothing non-ovenproof should be touching the oven.
• If you’re using a glass dish, don’t subject it to sudden temperature changes. In some recipes, you have to put the dish from the fridge into the oven. You should allow for some time in between for the glass to return to room temperature. Otherwise, the glass can break.
• No matter the amount of time you’ve been baking, you should always wear an apron. And if you’re making a cake for guests, NEVER EVER wear your good clothes and then make the cake. If you get batter on your clothes — I wouldn’t like being in your shoes.
• A cake recipe can almost always be used to make muffins or cupcakes, and vice versa.
• If a cake batter is a bit bland, you can either (a). add a very, very, very small amount of salt, 1/4 tsp or so, or (b). add more sugar and cocoa powder, in the same ratio as in the original recipe.
• Cupcakes are a better substitute for cakes when it comes to little kids.
• It’s a good idea to put out all of the ingredients of the cake before you start, and then put them back in place as you use them. This way, you won’t forget to put anything in the cake (like baking powder) and you won’t leave as much mess behind you, either.
• Always crack eggs separately before adding them to cake batter. There’s no knowing if the eggs might be bad.
• Always double-check that you’ve added all the ingredients before putting the cake in the oven.
• If you forgot to put the baking powder and the cake has been baked – DON’T PANIC. The cake will be flat as a pancake and very thick (moist, heavy, whatever) but it will be edible. It may not be too presentable though. The one good thing that could come out of this situation is that there will be no dome.
• If a recipe calls for unsalted butter, DO NOT use salted butter. The cake will be disgusting. We’ve made this mistake once while making cupcakes and they were inedible.

For tips on decorating cakes, check out this post.

I hope you found this post useful!