By Samantha Seneviratne, The New York Times
My early cakes always leaned unnaturally to one side. Their fillings oozed. The frostings were patchy at best and marred by sticky crumbs. But I never cared. I was a kid on a mission, excited to bake and eat with the people I loved. My family dutifully forked into thick slabs of those less-than-perfect confections — because even mediocre cake makes people happy. If you ask me, that’s the best thing about cake.
Since then, I’ve spent many years baking cakes, first as a magazine food editor and recipe developer, then working behind the scenes for television, judging dessert competition shows, food styling and writing cookbooks. I still believe cake is delightful, even when it’s not perfect. But there are a few things I’ve learned along the way to up my own cake game (I love you, salted European butter).
Here are some of the big ones.
Use a Scale (or Make Sure You Measure Flour Correctly)
Unlike vanilla and salt, which I tend to eyeball when baking, the amount of flour in a cake recipe should be adhered to as strictly as possible. Too little flour could lead to a damp or gummy cake without enough structure, and too much flour will make it dry.
Please don’t use a liquid measuring cup for dry ingredients. Liquid measuring cups are for liquid. Instead, a cheap digital kitchen scale is the easiest and most accurate way to measure. But if you don’t have one, there’s the “scoop and sweep” method. That is, use a spoon or a bench scraper to scoop the flour into the measuring cup until full, then sweep across the top to level. Don’t tap the cup and compact the flour.
Consider my chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. The recipe calls for only 3/4 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of cocoa powder. This ratio gives you light cupcakes with just the right amount of chocolate flavor. (They also fill the liners perfectly!) Too much cocoa or flour could make for crumbly and bitter cupcakes that exceed the liners.
Mix Your Batter Differently
We’ve all made cakes that start with “creaming” together the butter and sugar. That’s when you mix room-temperature butter (65 to 70 degrees) with sugar to cut in air and create pockets that trap gases that the leavener (baking powder or baking soda, or both) lets off when baked. Done properly, this leads to a light, tender cake. That said, I’ve certainly been guilty of using butter at the wrong temperature because I couldn’t be bothered to wait, or not actually creaming the butter and sugar together for long enough. (It can take 4 to 5 minutes.) And, even if this step is done perfectly, overmixing the batter once the liquid is added may create too much gluten and lead to a sad, tough cake.
There is a better way!
Thank you, Rose Levy Beranbaum, who popularized the two-stage or reverse creaming method of mixing cake batter in her book “The Cake Bible,” in which room-temperature butter is first mixed with dry ingredients. This gives the fat the opportunity to coat some of the flour’s proteins and, as a result, stop too much tough gluten from forming. In other words, it helps create tender cakes with little fuss.
The yellow sheet cake topped with a slightly tangy chocolate sour cream frosting has you do something similar, mixing the fat into the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
After the flour is evenly coated and the butter is evenly dispersed, the rest of the fat and just enough liquid are added to make a homogenous mixture. I find that the technique results in a finer crumb, a lovely mouth feel and easier slicing — and turns humble, everyday cakes into something totally special. Try making your favorite cake recipe using Rose’s method, and you won’t be sorry.
But best of all, once the cake batter is ready, you have your choice: Make it as a simple sheet cake, or bake the batter in two buttered, floured cake pans for something lovely and layered.
Know Your Oven (And Work With It)
I would argue that this is secretly the most important step to baking anything at all. My oven is small and hot, which means that my cakes cook faster, dome more and brown too much. I’m not deterred. But I must adjust.
Think about your oven. Does it take 30 minutes, unlike the usual 15, to properly preheat? Does it run hot? Or cold? Does the temperature drop significantly when the door is opened, unleashing a blast of heat? Is it smaller than the average, which could mean that things brown and bake at a different rate? Does it have hot spots that necessitate rotating?
Start by getting an oven thermometer and trust it over the control panel on your oven. Once you know the true temperature inside, you can make changes: You may have to set your oven 25 degrees lower or higher. You may need to turn the oven off and back on after opening the door to bring the temperature back up faster.
You can also set slices of white bread in different spots and watch how they brown. Use that knowledge to bake and rotate as needed.
And lastly, consider the bake times in a recipe as a guideline. Set your timer for a little before the lowest time marker and take a look (without opening the oven, if possible). Test for doneness before it’s too far gone. The perfect bake, light golden brown (or even a smidgen paler when it comes to a snowy white confetti cake) with a toothpick showing moist crumbs (not clean), takes a bit of care to achieve. You and your oven must work together.
Understand the Anatomy
The same general ingredients come together to make nearly every cake. Sugar affects the moisture in your cake, not just the sweetness. There’s baking powder, which creates a gas that gets trapped in the bubbles created by mixing butter and sugar and lifts the cake. Eggs give your cake structure. When they coagulate, the cake sets. (Without them, you basically have a pudding.) And then the fat: Oil works nicely with cakes because it keeps them tender and extends the shelf life. Butter is great because it tastes great.
Assemble the Tools
You don’t need every one of these items, but to start, you’ll want some cake pans. This one calls for a 9-by-13-inch pan, preferably one that’s uncoated thin aluminum, because it heats up quickly and doesn’t retain a lot of heat, allowing for even cooking. (Dark-colored pans can encourage overbrowning at the edges. A glass pan can retain heat for too long and potentially dry out your cake.) As you go, you’ll also probably want to get some standard muffin tins and 9-inch cake pans.
Dry and wet measuring cups are helpful in addition to scales, and spatulas, bench scrapers and knives can help with slicing. A cookie scoop simplifies scooping batter into muffin tins, and cooling racks are not just helpful for circulating air around the cake, they also make it easier to flip. Lastly, a stand mixer and rotating cake stand aren’t essential, but they are fun to have.
Butter Your Pan
Soften your butter, then use a pastry brush to get into all kinds of corners. (It may be a little fiddly, but it’s helpful.) Then add a good amount of flour, rotating the pan so it gets all over. The flour allows the batter to climb up the sides of the pan and get the appropriate lift.
Master the Scoop
As I mentioned before, the easiest way to measure flour is with a scale. It not only ensures accuracy, it also lends itself to easy cleanup. Once you’re done measuring your flour, tare the scale and measure the sugar in the same bowl. If you’re measuring without a scale, first aerate your flour a little (you can do that by using a bench scraper to incorporate some air), then scoop some flour into your measuring cup and level at the very end, so you don’t end up with extra spoonfuls of flour — and, later, a dry cake.
CAKE 101: Want to Dive Deeper?
I’ve selected three recipes that teach you the foundational skills of baking cakes: a simple sheet cake, a layer cake and cupcakes.
The ultimate teaching cake, this melt-in-your-mouth recipe for Yellow Sheet Cake is a great place to start your baking journey.
The easiest of the three, this recipe for Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes comes together with two bowls and no mixer — just a whisk. But it will teach you the simplest way to frost them and decorate them, so you can go from cooking to eating in no time at all.
And this joyous Confetti Cake with a snow-white crumb (thanks to egg whites instead of whole eggs) and a lighter, finer texture (thanks to cake flour) teaches you how to create evenly cooked layers that stack well and how to frost them. You won’t always get perfectly flat cakes — it’s not your fault, it’s the oven’s! — but you can work with them and still get something really beautiful. Pop your cake out while it’s still a little hot and have it break a bit? You can always put it back together. And when it comes to frosting, learning an effective crumb coat ensures you get a beautiful, clean end result.
Confetti Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
Like a boxed cake mix, but better, this homemade confetti cake is made with cake flour for a soft crumb, salted butter for extra flavor and almond extract for a bit of floral sweetness. It’s got everything you might remember from the store-bought mix without the chemical aftertaste. It’s slathered in a soft cream cheese frosting, made with a little less powdered sugar than usual, so that the tang really shines. Conventional, brightly colored sprinkles will give you the most vibrant cake.
By Samantha Seneviratne
Yield: One (9-inch) layer cake; 12 to 16 servings
Total time: 1 hour 20 minutes, plus cooling
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 3/4 cup/170 grams salted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature, plus more for the pans
- 4 cups/512 grams cake flour, plus more for the pans
- 1 1/2 cups/360 milliliters whole milk, at room temperature, divided
- 6 large egg whites
- 1/3 cup/80 milliliters vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 3/4 cups/350 grams granulated sugar
- 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- 3/4 cup/135 grams rainbow sprinkles
For the frosting:
- 24 ounces/675 grams cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 cup/226 grams salted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups/246 grams powdered sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- Rainbow sprinkles for decorating, optional
Preparation
1. Make the cake: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.
2. In a large liquid measuring cup, whisk together 1/2 cup of the milk, the egg whites, oil and vanilla and almond extracts.
3. In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat in the butter until the mixture looks sandy, about 1 minute. Add the remaining 1 cup milk and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. The batter will be thick.
4. With the mixer running, add the egg mixture in 2 parts, increasing the speed in between each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary.
5. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat the mixture for another minute. Reduce the speed to low and mix in the sprinkles.
6. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans and spread it out with an offset spatula.
7. Bake until the layers are puffed and light golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of each comes out with moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes, then tip them out of the pans to cool completely. (If you would like to make the cake in advance, you can wrap the baked and cooled layers in plastic and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw in the plastic at room temperature or in the fridge before frosting.)
8. Make the frosting: In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium, beat the cream cheese and butter together until fluffy and smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in the powdered sugar, vanilla and salt until smooth. Cover and chill until ready to use, then beat until smooth and spreadable.
9. If your cakes are domed, use a serrated knife to level the tops. Place one of the cake layers flat side down on a platter or a cake stand. Using an offset spatula, frost the top with 1 cup of frosting. Stack another layer on top, flat side up and top with 1 cup of frosting. Finish with the last layer, flat side up. Use the remaining frosting to cover the top of the cake, and working from the center outward, frost along the top and down the sides of the cake. Top with sprinkles as desired.
Tip
If you only have two 9-inch cake pans, you can bake two cake layers rather than three (you may have to increase the cooking time by a few minutes). Once they’re cool, wrap them individually with plastic and freeze for 30 minutes. Then, use a serrated knife to split each layer evenly in half for a four-layer cake.
Yellow Sheet Cake With Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
This may seem like a humble, everyday yellow cake. The kind you see at every birthday party. But this one is special. The texture is perfectly downy-soft and tender thanks to the reverse-creaming technique made popular by the cookbook author Rose Levy Beranbaum. Here, the butter is mixed with the dry ingredients first, which coats the flour and inhibits the formation of too much gluten when the wet ingredients are mixed in. Rich with vanilla and butter and topped with a slightly tangy chocolate sour cream frosting, the cake hits the mark. Make it as a simple sheet cake, or bake the batter in two buttered and floured 9-inch round cake pans for about 25 minutes for the perfect layer cake.
By Samantha Seneviratne
Yield: One (9-by-13-inch) cake; 12 servings
Total time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 3/4 cup/170 grams salted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature, plus more for the pan
- 3 cups/384 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
- 1 1/2 cups/360 milliliters whole milk, at room temperature, divided
- 4 large egg yolks, at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- ¼ cup/60 milliliters vegetable oil
- 1½ tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1½ cups/300 grams granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
For the frosting:
- 8 ounces/226 grams bittersweet chocolate, chopped, melted and cooled slightly (see tip)
- 1/2 cup/113 grams salted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup/123 grams powdered sugar
- 1 cup/240 milliliters sour cream, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Sprinkles for topping, optional
Preparation
1. Make the cake: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 13-by-9-inch baking pan.
2. In a large liquid measuring cup, whisk together 1/2 cup of the milk, the 4 egg yolks, 2 whole eggs, oil and vanilla.
3. In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat in the butter until the mixture looks sandy, about 1 minute. Add the remaining 1 cup milk and beat until smooth, about 1 minute. The batter will be thick.
4. With the mixer running, add the egg mixture in 2 parts, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary.
5. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat the batter for another 2 minutes.
6. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and spread it out evenly with an offset spatula.
7. Bake until the cake is puffed and light golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely, about 45 minutes.
8. Make the frosting: In a medium bowl, with an electric mixer, beat together the chocolate and the butter until smooth. Beat in the powdered sugar. Beat in the sour cream and the vanilla. (If the mixture is too loose, refrigerate for about 20 minutes, until just firm enough to spread. Beat until smooth before spreading.)
9. Invert the cake onto a serving platter, if desired. Spread the frosting evenly over the cake. If desired, top with sprinkles. The cake is best the day it’s made. Store leftovers in the fridge, well-wrapped, for up to 3 days.
Tip
In a medium microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate in 15-second bursts, stirring often.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes
These little cuties are light and fluffy, with just the right amount of chocolate flavor to complement but not overpower the salty-sweet peanut butter frosting. Made with oil instead of butter, the batter can be made by hand in minutes, and the resulting cupcakes stay nice and moist. They’re sure to be hit at the next bake sale or picnic.
By Samantha Seneviratne
Yield: 12 cupcakes
Total time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 3/4 cup/96 grams all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons/75 grams granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons/83 grams packed dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons/36 grams natural cocoa powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- 1/3 cup/80 milliliters vegetable oil
- 1/3 cup/80 milliliters buttermilk
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
For the frosting:
- 1 cup/270 grams creamy conventional peanut butter (not “natural”)
- 1/2 cup/113 grams salted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup/123 grams powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal)
- Chocolate pearls, mini chocolate chips or chocolate sprinkles, for topping (optional)
Preparation
1. Make the cupcakes: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup cupcake tin with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, egg and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk just until combined. Divide the batter evenly among the liners.
3. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of one cupcake comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 18 minutes. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes then transfer the cupcakes to the rack to cool completely.
4. Make the frosting: In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium, beat the peanut butter and salted butter together until creamy. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla and salt and beat until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. (The cupcakes and frosting can be made and stored separately, covered at room temperature, for up to 1 day.)
5. Top the cooled cupcakes with the frosting. Sprinkle with chocolate pearls, if desired.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.