Introduction

Have you ever had the same cake recipe produce different results? Have you thrown the cake away, blaming the recipe? My first years of cakemaking were filled with such events. I baked from recipes in every book available. Why did a recipe tell me to stir in the dry ingredients quickly with few strokes? Why did it tell me to pour the batter into the prepared baking pan, then let it sit for 20 minutes before baking? Why did I have to alternate the dry and liquid ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry? And if something went wrong, why?