Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Cake salty on the bottom


Regina3000

Recommended Posts

Tonight I made a one-bowl yellow cake (200 g sugar, 2 eggs, vanilla; creamed. Add 70 g oil, 200 g milk, 160 g flour (I used cake flour), 1 1/4 tsp baking powder, 3 g salt in this order. Bake in greased and floured 8-9" round cake pan at 350 for 60 minutes. Adapted from a recipe at Jenny Can Cook.) I've made this before, when craving cake, and while it's not the best recipe, it's decent enough and pretty fast to put together.

 

I forgot the milk until the end, and mixed the cake using a whisk because I couldn't find my hand mixer. I used kosher salt. The recipe didn't specify.

 

I iced it and just now had a piece because I woke up and can't get back to sleep. The bottom of the cake is salty.

 

What could be to blame, here?

Regina

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here’s my guess. 3 g of kosher salt did not get incorporated properly using a whisk. It was concentrated in one particular part of the cake batter - the bottom. 

  • Like 2

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Anna N said:

Here’s my guess. 3 g of kosher salt did not get incorporated properly using a whisk. It was concentrated in one particular part of the cake batter - the bottom. 

 

6 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Anna beat me to it.  I bake with Kosher salt but before adding the salt I grind it to powder in a mortar.

 

 

That makes sense. The rest of the cake is rather bland. I'll make sure to grind it, next time.

 

Thanks!

Regina

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Salt is basically insoluble in fat. 
 

Your initial mix was fat heavy, leaving distribution of granules to the mechanics of the mixing.   
 

Milk, as the last ingredient, did not allow the salt to dissolve completely.  It was bound in fat.  Crushing it could have made the situation worse. 

I suspect the milk was not completely integrated into the mix. The salt that did dissolve would have been concentrated in the higher density liquid. 
 

Was the texture any different top to bottom?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
×
×
  • Create New...