The Baking Mistake That Is Causing Holes In Your Cake
So, you've decided to start baking? Welcome to a grand adventure. You might have heard before that baking requires tons of patience, accuracy, and practice — and that is true! Baking brings drama to the kitchen in so many ways, and it requires the baker to practice over and over again until they ace the cake recipe they are looking for. Oh, but the feeling you get once you tried of one your sweet amazing creations is uniquely wonderful. Don't get frustrated, making mistakes while baking a cake is very common, and luckily, you are not alone!
There is a giant baking community that can relate to using expired products by accident, forgetting to grease the pan, confusing the measurements, having bubbles in the batter, and getting frustrated if the cake ends up with cracks, a funny texture, or with holes.
Luckily, your guests won't notice those holes until slicing the cake, and you can kind of hide it with decoration. Sometimes, though, that doesn't end the frustration. You might need to revisit one of your first steps to avoid holes in your cake, which means it may be time for improving your mixing technique.
Mixing it up
According to Polar Puffs & Cakes, holes and tunnels in cakes can happen if you don't mix the ingredients appropriately. This means that the batter is over-mixed, you are mixing too fast, or you don't mix until all your ingredients are completely blended (via Chelsweets). As Like Harmony explains, gluten appears when the batter is overmixed, which brings air and bubbles (holes). This normally happens when baking bread, and it makes it look beautiful and Instagrammable, but it shouldn't look like that when it comes to cake.
If it's not the mixing, sometimes holes can be caused because you overwhipped the eggs (which adds air), you add too much leavening like baking powder, or you are using the wrong kind of flour — one that doesn't incorporate that well when mixing (via Bake School). Polar Puffs & Cakes says it can also occur because our ingredients are too cold, so it would be better to use them at room temperature.
The best way to ensure holes won't appear is to rethink the way you are mixing. Perhaps you need to slow down the speed or stop when you feel your batter is ready. Let's hope this keeps the holes away and makes your baking time less frustrating and more fun.