Cake Wreck - What Happened Here?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

This is normally one of the most reliable cake recipes I have; it's an amaretto-espresso cake that's so simple that I can make it in my sleep. Any ideas why it did this rather than caking up correctly as it normally does? The moulds were filled to 1/2 full, which should have left plenty of room for expansion.

All is not lost - the cake is actually cooked properly and will become some version of Darienne's "cake doohickeys". But that's not what I was shooting for!

(ps - at 10,000 feet, my barometric pressure doesn't vary more than about 50 millibars between sunny and cloudy days, and rapid weather changes don't happen here.)

[Mjx]

Any chance that you accidentally used to much leavening, or the wrong one? It's the sort of thing I've done with recipes that I know so well, there is a chance that I may switch autopilot when I use them. Or, heat spike in the oven?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Possible, but not probable - I autopilot bake quite often, and have found that by putting my soda and powder in two very different jars, I almost never cross-leaven anymore.

Heat spike, though, is a definite possibility - I need to replace the verniers in my oven, and I've been too busy to do it. Another possibility, now that I think about it, is that I slightly overmeasured the milk. Or perhaps it's just not going to work in silicone today! Ugh, so many possibilities.

[Darienne]

Possible, but not probable - I autopilot bake quite often, and have found that by putting my soda and powder in two very different jars, I almost never cross-leaven anymore.

Heat spike, though, is a definite possibility - I need to replace the verniers in my oven, and I've been too busy to do it. Another possibility, now that I think about it, is that I slightly overmeasured the milk. Or perhaps it's just not going to work in silicone today! Ugh, so many possibilities.

I think I need a simply-worded explanation for verniers.

Speaking of "doohickeys" and "doodads" this time I made the Mocha Molasses Cake properly...is it good!!!...and then have turned most of it into cake doodads with the addition of much rum, butter, 54% chocolate, icing sugar and they are currently resting gently in the freezer. Half to go for the Dog Weekend and half for a (shudder) Tupperware Party I can't get out of (unless the hostess reads this post). Good luck with your own doohickeys. You'll be stunned at the lustful reaction they provoke.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I have a gas oven. The verniers are the jets on the oven floor from which the flame issues; given the amount of time that the oven's been on lately in proportion to its age, it's probably time to replace them - they're generally only good for so many hours before they start to burn out between the perforations, which can cause heat spikes. And that's a prime example of me reaching for the correct Spanish term before the English one, which is (I believe) "gas element" or some similar. I've always called that particular oven part a vernier, though.

[minas6907]

Hmmm, interesting. Those look like reverse cupcakes.

[Lisa Shock]

It looks like there was too much sugar in them. It would be a lot easier to tell in person, the feel of the crumb can tell a lot. But, you may also be correct in the milk. Overall, it looks to me like too much liquid.

[pastrygirl]

Are you 1000% sure you put all the flour in?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I am. I made the recipe again in a springform, and it was also an epic fail which tells me that yesterday was not a day for cake, or for that recipe (and yes, I'm 10000% sure that the right amount of flour went in!)

[Darienne]

Do you have a wide spread in humidity as we do in Ontario? Well, from 50% to 100%. Or are you like the Southwest...8% to 56%? (I probably have both sets of figures wrong. )

I know that when I make muffins in Moab and don't adjust for altitude (4,500 '), my muffins runneth over.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

It's winter here. Humidity stays steady at about 20% unless it's raining, but as I noted above the weather doesn't change rapidly here. And at 10,000 feet, you'd better bet that all of my recipes have been adjusted for altitude! The first time I tried to bake up here, it was a far worse cake wreck than what's shown above.

[Darienne]

It's winter here. Humidity stays steady at about 20% unless it's raining, but as I noted above the weather doesn't change rapidly here. And at 10,000 feet, you'd better bet that all of my recipes have been adjusted for altitude! The first time I tried to bake up here, it was a far worse cake wreck than what's shown above.

:laugh:

I usually adjust for baking at 4500', but it's surprising how many folks don't. And if I don't, it really doesn't matter all that much. I'm not trying to sell the results.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

It's surprising what even a thousand feet can do in terms of how batters and doughs behave.... Up here, I use far less soda, slightly more powder, and a lot more fat.

[Catherine Iino]

I once tried to make maple cupcakes with my daughters and it ended up looking like that. I still don't know why, but we renamed it maple surprise and that's been a family joke ever since.