Basic Baking Techniques

To be praised as a good cake baker is perhaps one of the great culinary accolades, and to achieve this goal you are best armed with basic cake chemistry.

Heat has a specific effect on liquids, flours, eggs, fats and sugars, which also react with each other during baking. Too low a heat and the cake will not cook thoroughly in the centre, producing a solid, cloying mass. Too high a temperature cooks the cake’s outside quickly, causing a hard crisp exterior that forces any uncooked middle mixture to push up and erupt in a peaked and cracked appearance. Yet light, whisked sponges, for example, need quite a high heat to prevent them from becoming as flat as biscuits.