Funfetti Pound Cake scratch recipe - Chocolate Chocolate and More! (2024)

FAQs

What makes pound cake tough? ›

Mistake: Overmixing The Batter

This will help to ensure that the dry and wet ingredients are evenly distributed throughout the batter. Mix just until blended after each addition. Overmixing the batter creates a tough, rubbery cake.

Those gluey pound cake streaks happen when your over-cream the butter and sugar.

When a cake is wet in the middle it is because the edges have cooked faster than the centre. This happens because of the way the cake cooks naturally in the tin – the sides of the cake tin heat up first.

The Batter become Dense, when it's over mixed and looses the air trapped when mixing. Results in a heavier cake. I try not to mix my cake batter with a whisk. I use the folding method with a spatula or wooden spoon folding in the flour lightly.

"Gently" is key here; overmixing with a heavy hand will cause the batter to deflate, and all your hard work creaming will be reversed. The result will be a dense, tough cake.

Room Temperature Butter / Don't Over-Cream

Most cakes begin with creaming butter and sugar together. Butter is capable of holding air and the creaming process is when butter traps that air. While baking, that trapped air expands and produces a fluffy cake. No properly creamed butter = no air = no fluffiness.

Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C). Not 350°F. Generously grease a 10-12 cup Bundt pan with butter or nonstick spray. Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.

Our recommendation on how long to cool a cake before icing it is to wait 2-3 hours for your cake to cool completely. Then, add a crumb coat and refrigerate the cake for up to 30 minutes. Once that is done, you'll be able to ice until your heart's content.

How long do you leave pound cake in the pan? When it's done baking, let the cake sit in the pan for 10 minutes: no more, no less. It's enough time for the cake to firm up some after baking so that it doesn't fall apart, but not so much time that the cake gets stuck to the pan. Ten minutes is the sweet spot.

There are several possible causes for what is called a sad streak in a pound cake. One is that there wasn't enough stirring in the early stages of preparing the batter. The other is that the cake needs to 'set' the crumb when you first remove it from the oven.

Why does my pound cake fall when I take it out of the oven? ›

Cakes sink in the middle due to several reasons. One reason is that the cake batter might be too moist, causing it to collapse during baking. Another reason could be that the oven temperature is too low, leading to uneven baking. Opening the oven door too frequently while baking can also cause cakes to sink.

Too Much or Too Soft of Butter

If the butter yields too easily to pressure and appears melted and oily, it will produce a silky batter that rises too soon and collapses. Your cake will have big air pockets and an uneven texture.

Ready-to-go pancake batters and muffin doughs should be delightfully fluffy—don't fear a few lumps! When overmixed, these batters become dense and heavy or liquidy and runny, or visibly slack. Undermixed biscuit and pie dough won't hold together when pressed or squished, and there will be dry, uneven scabby bits.

First, why the crack occurs: Since quick breads and pound cake batters tend to be thick and dense, the exterior bakes first. But as the center of the cake continues to bake, releasing moisture, it rises, pushing through the top crust, and creating a crack.

Overmixing

Overworking the batter, especially if it contains gluten, will result in a tough, chewy cake. You'll often see the instructions, “mix until just combined,” in cake recipes. This means to stop mixing as soon as you see that all ingredients are evenly incorporated.

Over mixing cake batter can result in a heavy, closed rubbery texture. Over mixing acts on the gluten in flour and will make cakes hard instead of the lovely soft spongy texture we associate with a good cake.