The One Trick You Should Know To Keep Your Cake Perfectly Moist
For many, baking is a creative form of escapism and relaxation. While baking can be very therapeutic and rewarding (and dangerously delicious), it also brings people together, especially generationally (via Insider). How many of us have fond memories of baking with grandma or coming home to our mom's famous homemade chocolate chip cookies?
Even if you love boxed cake for its simplicity, there are a few ingredients you should always have on hand, if possible. According to AllRecipes, this includes butter, vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder, flour, and sugar. It also wouldn't hurt to have brown sugar, chocolate chips, vegetable oil, and chopped nuts, if you love nutty baked goods.
No matter if you're a newbie in the kitchen or a seasoned baker, there's always room for improvement. Brittany Lavallee, a cake decorator and bakery expert at Publix, told Mashed the secret is all in the timing and temperature of the oven — mess that up, and your cake could be compromised.
Why you should pay extra attention to the oven's temperature
"One trick that I think is very important when baking is the time/temperature that the cake is being baked," cake expert Brittany Lavallee told Mashed. She further explained that despite using the exact, proper measurements and ingredients, the moisture of the cake can be greatly compromised if your oven isn't at the appropriate level of heat or if the cake is left in the oven for too long, or not long enough. Likewise, Lavallee noted that preheating the oven is key; doing so will help the cake "[bake] evenly right away."
It's not uncommon for cakes to sometimes be thoroughly baked before the timer goes off, which is why Lavallee recommends monitoring your cake throughout the process. "Signs of a cake being done would be the sides pulling away from the pan ever so slightly," she said, adding that, "[Also,] testing the spring back to make sure the cake is baked completely through without being over or under baked." The spring back method involves gently testing the center of the cake with your fingers to see if the cake "springs back" into shape after it's pressed (via King Arthur Baking).
The next time you go to bake a cake, remember, even if you've whisked the most delicious cake batter, what truly matters is setting your oven to the proper temperature and keeping tabs on your bake. Do that, and you won't end up with a dry, firm cake.