My Cake Shrunk

[autowasherfreak]

I made a homemade spice cake today, it look great when it came out of the oven, but after it cooled it shrunk pulled in from all four sides as well as height. Is this caused by over mixing? The cake tastes great, I added a little nutmeg and some vanilla to it.

 

[jamiel]

Yes, potentially overmixing, insufficient flour (did you measure correctly), or too much leavening.

 

[autowasherfreak]

I measured everything correctly, but it only called for a cup of milk, and with just a cup, it was as thick is bread dough, so I added more milk. It was supposed to be sour or buttermilk and I forgot to sour the milk, would that make a difference?

 

[panthera]

Yup.

The flour used might not have been right, either.
If you did everything else right, I'd guess the lacking leavening was what done it in.
Still ought to taste good, I'll bet!

 

[autowasherfreak]

It tastes great. I used all purpose flour the same flour I used a couple weeks ago for the banana nut bread. I'm going to try it again today and see what happens. Hopefully I will get better results.

 

[bernina]

leavening

It was supposed to be sour or buttermilk and I forgot to sour the milk, would that make a difference?

Yep. The acids in sour milk or buttermilk react with the baking soda or powder to create gas bubbles. (Think science fair volcano.)

Most likely your reaction wasn't strong enough with plain milk, and the cake didn't rise enough.

A little bit too-long-baking time can cause a cake to shrink, too. It really shouldn't pull in from the sides too much until after you remove it from the oven.

Glad to hear it tasted good!

We're baking today, too.

 

[jetcone]

I LLOVE

SPICE cake, pictures puhleese!

 

[autowasherfreak]

I didn't realize it until I made it the second that it called for cake flour and I used all purpose flour. I did sour the milk this time.

Will do Jetcone, unless it is a flop again, LOL.

 

[appnut]

Don't be so hard on yourself. Yes appearance can be important, but what's most important is the taste and it sounds like that passed with flying colors. And you can reduce slightly the amount of all-purpose flour to equal what cake flour is--I think it's 1 less tablespoon per cup of regular flour to equal cake flour.

 

[autowasherfreak]

You were close on the substitution, I googled it a few moments ago and found this:

The general rule of substitution is 1 cup of all purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons (1c - 2tbsp) is equivalent to 1 cup of cake flour.

 

[autowasherfreak]

My aunts, grandmothers, and mother could bake anything from scratch, sometimes even without a recipe a dash of this and a smidgen of that. I have a folding organizer of recipes from my either a great aunt or great grandmother, the paper is so old that it has yellowed and become very fragile.

 

[appnut]

Recipes on fragile paper

Jim, do you have a scanner which you could electronically save all those wonderful recipes?

 

[autowasherfreak]

The cake didn't shrink, but it might have gotten over baked a little, I set the alarm on my cell phone to the correct time. Pics coming soon.

 

[autowasherfreak]

I do have a scanner. I'm going to scan them soon and burn the images onto a cd.

 

[appnut]

Glad to hear ya gonna do that Jim.

 

[autowasherfreak]

Here is the second spice cake. The first one tasted better, and the second one looked better. For some reason the alarm didn't go off on my cell phone, and the second cake was over baked and came out a little dry. I'm going to try the recipe a third time once I get some cake flour.

 

[autowasherfreak]

Frosted

I made a basic frosting out of butter flavored Crisco, powdered sugar and vanilla.

 

[circlew]

Jim, I hope the third time is the "charm" for you and your cake.

 

[mixguy]

Leavening agent

Does the recipe call for soda? Since sour milk is called for in the recipe. Is this cake mixed using the creaming (creaming fat and sugar first, the eggs, then dry ingredients alternately with the sour milk . . . ) method? If so then is the soda mixed with flour? Are you using speed 3 or lower when adding the flour and is mixing stopped once the flour is completely incorporated? When the first cake shrank, was the texture dense? was it moist or dry?

 

[appnut]

Jim, whose gettin to eat these rejected cakes?

 

[autowasherfreak]

The first cake I took over to Casey's for my co-workers, it was gone in no time at all, the second I kept for my roommate and I.

I will post a copy of the recipe when I get home from work today.

 

[norgeway]

My partners mom!!

Can break every rule of baking and STILL get good results???I measure EVERYTHING exactly, I wouldn't dare try some of the things she does.