The Frustration of Sunken Cupcakes

See how it sunk in the middle..

I know it’s happened to everyone that has ever baked a cake (or cupcakes), the dreaded sinking or fall of the top of the cake.

It has happened to me many times…

It brings me back to Pastry and Baking at the Culinary School. I think I was the only one excited for the class. The majority of the students were horrified at the prospect of weighing, measuring ingredients as well as the exact science of time and how your caramel can quickly turn to candy if you aren’t watching it oh so carefully:

Reasons Your Cake has fallen or sunken in:

• Proportions in your recipe are wrong: It would be pretty evident in the fall as well as the texture of your cake if your proportions were off. Make sure to read over your recipe before baking. Ensuring you have a leavening agent whether, its self rising flour, Baking powder and/ or Baking soda in the recipe.
• Make sure to Scrape the bowl while mixing to ensure ingredients are distributed well.
• Your oven is too hot or not warm enough. Check that the temperature is correct for the type of cake you are baking.
• Did you beat the cake too much?  It can cause distribution of air in the batter which in turn will deflate when you pull it out of the oven.
• Opening the oven door to check on the cake.  I suggest putting the timer on and only checking on it when it’s about 5 minutes from being done. Closing the oven door too hard can cause a rising cake to fall.
• You did not leave the cake in long enough for the middle to finish baking.
• Sometime Altitude can play a part, If you live in a high altitude location, make sure you add or subtract so much of an ingredient as needed. ( I will post something about altitude baking)

 

Just remember to read the recipe before baking. Plan it out. Make sure you have all the ingredients and enough of them.  You can invest in a an oven thermometer if you aren’t sure your oven is heating correctly. And all I can say from my experiences in baking most of my life, try and try again. A Recipe does not ever turn out the same way twice, there is always minuscule difference, more moist, more dry, more crispy  more soft…Baking can be a pain but all in all it’s fun and the results are delicious.

And I was showing you for the benefit of a post. I pulled my cupcakes out earlier than normal, in this case they fell. My next batch looked like this: