Raw cake

[charlesHJW]

Please help! I made this coffee cake to the BBC recipe and when i took it out it was wet so i took advice and covered it in foil, turned tge temperature right down and left it in and it is still the same. Please help why is it so wet and raw inside?

 

[charlesHJW]

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Please help! I made this coffee cake to the BBC recipe and when i took it out it was wet so i took advice and covered it in foil, turned tge temperature right down and left it in and it is still the same. Please help why is it so wet and raw inside?

The foil prevented the water from evaporating and the lower temperature prevented proper starch gelatinization and protein denaturalization to occur. All of which are necessary for a batter to thicken and set.

The stages of baking:

1. Batter heats; fats melts
2. Leavening is triggered; CO2 (air bubbles) expanding the batter
3. Starch gelatinization (thickening) occurs (required to set the batter)
4. Protein denaturation occurs (coagulation of the protein in the flour and egg)
5. Water heats and evaporates
6. Enzyme reactions cease
7. Maillard reaction occurs (chemical reaction between the amino acids [proteins] and sugars)
8. Cooling re-solidify all ingredients that heat turned from solids to liquids during baking

Baking is a chemical reaction of all the ingredients to time and temperature. When you lowered the oven temperature and covered the cake, you disrupted the chemical reaction to time and temperature.

It’s important to understand that the baking times can vary. If your cake is not done, leave it in the oven. Do not cover it with foil. Just allow it to bake longer.

Also, a small diameter, deep tin is never advisable to use as the volume of batter increases the baking time. This means the cake will be over-baked every time. When using a deep cake tin, use a larger diameter; use a heating core; a cloth baking strip, and reduce the oven temperature. The heating core will disperse heat from the center out, helping to bake the cake more evenly and faster. Cloth baking strips are always advisable as they insulate the cake tin from excessive heat, ensuring more even baking, preventing a dry hard crust from forming on the cake, and ensuring a level cake.

Just kind of an aside...baking is very specific. it is a chemical reaction that begins with the specific ingredients AND the specific percentages of those ingredients. That is why bakers use metric weight in baking. The chemical reaction begins with the mixing method. Cakes are categorized by the mixing method. For example, the Victoria Sponge is not a sponge cake despite the name. It is shortened cake (a pound cake) leavened with chemical and mechanical Leavening. The chemical Leavening is the creaming of the butter and sugar, and the chemical leavening is the baking powder and/or baking soda.

The Victoria “sponge” is different from a biscuit both in its formula and it mixing method.

Biscuit Ratios

Egg 50%
Sugar 25%
Flour/starch 15% - 25%
Fat 4% - 5%

Victoria Sponge Ratios

Egg 100%
Sugar 100%
Flour/starch 100%
Fat 100%


A biscuit differs from a shortened cake and traditional sponge in the Mixing Method based on one of two methods:

Method 1:
Sugar is divided;
Eggs are separated and sugar is whipped in egg whites and yolks separately. The whipped eggs and dry ingredients are alternately folded into sweetened yolks

Method 2:

Eggs are separated. Egg whites are whipped into a meringue with the sugar. Yolks are folded into the meringue. Dry ingredients are sifted over the whipped eggs and folded in.

People think baking is about tradition, and in many regards it is. But those traditions are really based in science. And when you deviate from those traditions you blow up the science. The baking doesn’t work outside of the science.

 

[charlesHJW]

Thank you so much! Just to clarify, the foil was added afterwards as a rescue mission!
We will try again with your help!

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Thank you so much! Just to clarify, the foil was added afterwards as a rescue mission!
We will try again with your help!

Yes, I understand, but you cannot cover the cake.

The baking process is the baking process. Every oven is going to be a little bit different. Some ovens will run a little bit hotter, some a little bit cooler. The size of your oven chamber, the type of metal of the cake tin, the color of metal of the cake tin, whether your cake tin is coated will effect how the batter bakes.

Heat is energy, is does not rise. The heating element in an oven heats the air. Air will rise. The air will heat the metal of the oven chamber walls, the rack, the cake tin. The heat from the tin will transfer into the batter direct contact with the cake tin and surface air above the batter. The reason the cake is set and baked on the sides is that is where the batter has direct contact with the metal. It takes time for the heat from the metal to reach the center of the batter.

The stages of baking begin from the contact between the tin and the batter, as the batter heats up those stages of baking begin to happen and move to the center of the cake. how fast that happens depends on how much batter is in the tin.

You covered the cake before the process was completed.

But most likely had you just let your cake bake, by the time the process would have completed, your cake would’ve been over baked. And the reason is because your cake tin is very small in diameter and it is very deep. And if you have fan assist, then the cake would definitely be over baked as fan assist circulates the hot air in the oven chamber. This intensifies the heat. When you have fan assist you need to bake at a lower temperature.