With Christmas fast approaching, an increasing number of people are digging out their weighing scales and getting ready to bake some delicious treats for family and friends (or just for themselves… we don’t judge!) But have you ever taken your bakes out of the oven to discover they were more of a flop than a flourish?
Depending on what you’re baking, there could be a number of different things that went wrong, even if your sweet treats aren’t particularly hard things to bake. In this article, we are going to run through 15 of the biggest baking mistakes and what you can do to avoid these baking blunders next time! Let’s jump straight in!
You forgot a key ingredient or substituted ingredients for something else
One of the biggest instances of ‘baking gone wrong’ is when key ingredients are substituted for other things or forgotten altogether! It happens to the best of us - you get half way through a bake to realise you forgot to add the eggs and it’s too late to add them in, or you figure out once you’ve poured it in that what you thought was self-raising flour is actually almond flour!
Luckily, there’s an easy fix. Make sure to read through the ingredients and method of the recipe before you start baking, and get everything out on the side, in the order that you will need it. This ensures that you’ve got everything you need to hand, and means you won’t accidentally overmix your batter while you’re rummaging through your cupboards for chocolate chips or vanilla extract!
You didn’t measure out the ingredients
Another key baking blunder: not weighing out your ingredients accurately. It can be tempting to eye-ball your ingredients, especially if you can’t find your measuring cups or your scale batteries have died, but even the slightest mis-measure can lead to poor textures or bad tastes!
Make sure you read the recipe carefully and follow the exact measurements given. Invest in a digital scale and a good measuring jug to make sure you’re using just the right amount! This will not only help your bakes taste better, but it will ensure consistency every time!
You didn’t sift your dry ingredients
We get it, sifting flour or cocoa powder can be a time consuming step that may appear unnecessary. However, it is an essential step that helps to aerate dry ingredients, leading to a lighter crumb and preventing clumps!
Make sure to sift any dry ingredients using a sieve. If you’re impatient, pour the ingredients into the sieve and leave to sift into the mixing bowl below while you do something else. Grab a cup or tea (or a glass of wine), or have a snack while you're waiting for the process to finish.
You’re baking at the wrong temperature
These next three mistakes are all closely interlinked. The first one is that you’re baking at the wrong temperature. An oven that is slightly too hot can lead to burnt bakes with a dry texture. On the other hand, an oven that’s not quite hot enough can cause your treats to come out still raw!
Frustratingly, ovens aren’t always the temperature they say they are, so investing in an oven thermometer can help to make sure it’s at the prime temperature.
You didn’t preheat your oven
Another cause of your oven being at the wrong temperature is that you didn’t preheat it before popping your treats in to bake. Preheating your oven ensures that it is the optimal temperature to bake your sweet treat as soon as you put it in the oven. By not preheating your oven, your cake will not be baked for as long as it should be at the necessary temperature, potentially leading to an underbaked cake.
Once you’ve decided you’re going to bake, make preheating your oven the first thing you do. By the time you have laid out the necessary ingredients and utensils, mixed the ingredients together and done any necessary prep, your oven should be ready to go. The thermometer from the previous tip would come in handy here too - as you know that the oven is definitely ready to go when you are!
You kept opening the oven door
We do understand the desire to open the door every few minutes to see how your bakes are getting on, but we are begging you, PLEASE STOP OPENING THE OVEN DOOR! We’ve spoken about the dangers of opening the door too soon in our recent article, ‘Why are my cupcakes sinking?’, and on top of causing delicate bakes to collapse, opening the oven door too soon or too frequently causes a sudden drop in temperature, which can lead to uneven bakes.
If us simply telling you to not open the oven door until the bake is almost done is falling on deaf ears, there are a number of things that can be done to counteract the drop in temperature:
Your ingredients were the wrong temperature
It can be tempting to start your baking process as quickly as possible - especially if you’re hungry! But not allowing your ingredients the time they need to get to the correct temperature can have a disastrous effect on the final product! Adding butter straight from the fridge when the recipe specifically states to use room temperature butter may seem like a minor change, but it could cause your bakes to be mixed unevenly, leading to a dense sponge and poor rise.
Make sure to read your recipe in advance and take any ingredients, such as butter and eggs, out of the fridge a few hours beforehand if necessary.
You undermixed the ingredients
Undermixing the ingredients is a surefire way of achieving a ‘baking gone wrong’ moment! Undermixing ingredients can lead to a range of issues that affect the texture, structure, and quality of the final product. When ingredients like butter, sugar, or eggs aren’t mixed thoroughly, the batter can develop lumps, resulting in an inconsistent texture. Visible streaks of flour, butter, or eggs can cause some areas to be either too dry or too wet. This lack of proper mixing also prevents air from being incorporated into the batter, which is essential for the rise of many sweet treats, including cakes and muffins often leading to flat bakes.
One way of preventing this is by using an electric whisk to mix your ingredients, rather than mixing by hand. You may think you’re strong enough to whisk your eggs, butter and sugar together by hand, but it takes a lot longer than expected! Also make sure you scrape the edge of your mixing bowl with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula every time you add a new ingredient. This helps to prevent any large clumps!
You overmixed the ingredients
Unfortunately, it’s just as easy to overmix the ingredients as it is to undermix them! Mixing dry and wet ingredients together is a very important step when baking treats such as bread, cookies and cakes, as this process helps to create the gluten structure that creates the perfect texture. By overmixing, too much gluten can be developed, causing a tough and chewy final product!
To prevent your batter from being overmixed, use your electric whisk on a slow setting, and only mix until you see no more visible streaks of flour or dry ingredients.
Your fruit or chocolate chunks sunk to the bottom
We’ve all gone through the heartbreak of getting our delicious chocolate chip banana bread out of the tin to find that all of the chocolate has sunk to the bottom! It’s devastating - we get it. Not only is the main taste of the bake only present in one small bite, but sunken ingredients can lead to a dense, soggy texture!
To prevent this from happening, only add heavy fruit and chocolate chunks just before popping your bake in the oven. This means they have less time to sink. As well as this, dust these extra ingredients with flour before adding them to the batter. This layer of flour improves their grip on the batter and helps to ensure a more even distribution throughout the sweet treat!
You didn’t grease the tin
Greasing the tin is a critical step to ensure your delicious bakes don’t get stuck in the pan! In fact, it’s so important that we have a whole article on how to do it! Greasing the cake tin properly is such an easy step, but when it’s missed it can lead to catastrophic results!
To prevent your cake from sticking to the pan, use butter, oil or shortening and thoroughly coat the base and sides of the tin. Consider adding grease-proof paper as an extra insurance to help you easily slide it out of the pan!
You overfilled the cake tin
Another common baking mistake is overfilling the cooking pan. Overfilling the tin doesn’t leave the bake enough room to rise properly as it bakes, leading to messy spillages and an uneven bake.
To counteract this baking blunder, be sure to only fill your cake pan, loaf tin or cupcake cases until they are two-thirds full, as this will allow plenty of room to rise!
Your treats haven't baked evenly
A major baking disaster is when you take your bake out of the oven to find some parts are underbaked while others are burnt! There are a number of different causes of an uneven bake, including that your oven doesn’t heat evenly and even that you’re using the wrong kind of pan!
Did you know that glass heats up slower than metal? Because of this, glass dishes result in slower bakes than metal ones! Therefore, if you’re trying to bake your brownies, tray-bakes and other goodies in a casserole dish rather than a cake tin, you’ll need to bake it for longer!
To counteract this, ensure that you’re using the appropriate utensil for your bake, and periodically turn the cake tin whilst it’s in the oven.
You didn’t know when your bake was ready
A common cause of overbaking is that the baker simply did not know when the goodies were done! Perhaps a bigger problem when baking chocolate cake or coloured sponges, because you can’t use the traditional ‘golden brown’ rule as a guideline, knowing when your bake is ready to come out of the oven, especially for inexperienced bakers, can be difficult.
To mitigate this, ensure you follow the recipe, and use a skewer to make sure your bake is cooked all the way through before removing it from the oven!
You didn’t let your cake cool before icing
If you’re in a rush (or are simply impatient and can’t wait to eat your delicious sweet treat), it can be tempting to fill and ice your cake before it’s cool. However, this is a surefire way to end up with a melted sticky mess, and it can even pull up chunks of crumb from your bake!
To stop your finished product looking like an erupted volcano, it’s essential to make sure it is completely cool before you add any kind of icing, fillings or toppings. If you want to speed up the process, let your cakes cool on a wire rack for around half an hour and then transfer them to the fridge to cool fully. This will typically take between an hour or two, depending on the size and thickness of the sponge!
How Gaya Bakery can help
Hopefully, by following our handy tips and advice in this article, you can prevent the common baking mistakes from happening to your cakes. However, if you’ve tried everything and still can’t get your tasty treats to go as planned, we have a number of cakes, brownies and desserts that are sure to wow loved ones instead.
With carefully crafted recipes, we bake goodies that not only taste incredible but also look stunning! Using only the finest ingredients, we make sure every bite is a delight for our customers.
Explore our full range of cakes, desserts, and postal treats on our website, or get in touch with us today!
