Crumbly cake... why does this happen?!
Crumbly cake... why does this happen?
I made a lovely sponge cake yesterday.. and for some reason this time it is very crumbly.. almost falling appart when i eat it!!
Why does this happen? How can i keep my sponge together?
Answers: afew possiblity:
1) consistency of mixture too dry
2) too much sugar added
3) oven temp too high
Good luck on your next sponge (^.^)
(tip: Do not always follow exactly what the recipes says. experiment a little by adding/subtracting here n there) according to my daughter who is a cake decorator and baker for years, it might be that the ingredients were not fully mixed.
cheers Insufficient fat usually causes crumbly cake - Fat traps air in the cake batter so there is less air in the mix. The batter does not flow properly. Insufficient shortening of proteins lead to a tough product.
Hope this helps. From a mere male..... Suggest that you cooked for too long, or did not have correct amount of liquid in. Looked 'closely' at cakes when first got microwave, the trick is to cook slowly enough to cause cake to rise then set, then take it out. if you do not give time to set, it will flop. conversly, if you cook too fast, you will set the outside, the inside will then expand & crack the top.....tis an engineering problem really. Chemistry Of Baking.....
when you bake, you are trying to raise a mixed dough, let is set, gain strength, then be able to take and maintain required shape. When you heat flour, the protein molecules undergo chemical changes, and create 'gluten'. Gluten is like strands/ropes which are tough and strong. But then you got a raising agent in your dough/mix right? these are Carbonates of some elements like sodium, calcium,etc. in fact, what we just want to make use of is the 'carbonate' part of compounds like sodium carbonate, calcium carbonate, etc. the carbonates is broken by an 'acidic' ingredient in the mix (e.g. citric) to give off carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is hot and wants to escape. As it does so, it moves in between the gluten strands, bulging them and raising them to slowly become upright pillars (hence dough rises). But then most flours naturally have enzymes that are 'anti-gluten' and they want to break these gluten strands which are supposed to be pillars which give rise to dough and maintain shape. Actually, picture the gluten strands in a network like a spider-web, with spaces for carbon dioxide to escape. But then you also have salt in your dough hey. Salt is not there to give taste to your cake coz nobody wants a salty cake! The salt destroys the 'anti-gluten' enzymes. i say enzymes coz these are protein in nature and enzymes are nothing but protein. so the salt ensures your pillars remain in place, in the spider-web, keep the dough raised without falling/crumbling. put enough salt as per recipe. its taste properties are overshadowed by the overwhelmingly large amounts of sugar in the recipe. Remember that salt can act as a flavour, preservative, structure-giver, hydrophile, or anything depending on the concentration or other ingredients present.
DANGER...
Too much salt to try prevent crumbling results still in weakening the gluten 'structural' strands and still your cake crumbles, but this time with wet, eratically spaced, salty, flours in your cake. sponge cakes are easy to make........did u add the ingredients one by one like the recipe states and did u fold the egg white mixture into the yolk mixture slowly and gently?.....dont know what else it could....make sure the egg mixture is mixed thoroughly and dont over mix the egg whites.....follow recipe carefully and use a good quality cake pan.