Q&A for How to Bake a Cake

Cakes with a tough texture may have been over-mixed. Over-mixing creates gluten and leads to a tougher texture.

Buttermilk can be substituted for other milk products (including non-dairy milk), but this will reduce the level of moisture of the cake. To make buttermilk at home, add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup of dairy milk. Allow it to sit for five minutes then stir it before incorporating it into your recipe.

In that recipe, eggs are the leavening agent. Therefore, you don't need to add baking powder.

Cakes must be completely cool before icing. Use an off-set spatula or knife to apply frosting.

Most brands of butter are salted to help preserve the butter longer. Unsalted butter is butter that has not had salt added to it. As such, it doesn't keep as long as the salted variety and its flavor differs slightly. Some recipes call for salted butter, while some chefs simply prefer working with unsalted butter because it enables them to have greater control over how much salt ends up in the final dish or baked product. It's a good idea to try different brands of butter until you find one that you like the most, both with salted and unsalted butters, as they tend to vary.

You don't have to use vanilla extract but it's important to understand why vanilla extract is often added. Vanilla extract is thought of in the same way as salt––it adds flavor, heightens the sweetness of other sweet ingredients (such as chocolate and sugar) and some bakers consider that it "rounds out" the cake flavor. Some bakers consider that cake batter lacking vanilla extract can taste "flat." If you don't like vanilla extract or don't wish to use it, either leave it out and proceed with just the other ingredients or substitute it with something like a dash of maple syrup or honey or add spices like ginger or cinnamon to provide a "rounded out" flavor. At least try the end result without vanilla extract to see if you like it first...

The cake with a peak often results from over-mixing the ingredients in the batter; next time don't mix it as much. Another reason can be that the cake was baked too hot; check your oven temperature by using a portable cake thermometer as the reading will be more accurate. It may also occur where the pan is too small and the ingredients can only rise up––if the ingredients are already baked enough they'll keep going up into a peak (if they're not baked enough, they'll rise then run all down the sides of the pan). Always use the right size pan for the amount of batter––the recipe should make this clear.

For making your own pancakes, check out the wikiHow: How to Make Pancakes . And for making your own syrup, you might like this wikiHow: How to Make Maple Syrup . Both recipes are good beginner recipes to try.

Check that you're not over-greasing the pan sides, as this is often the cause of shrinking cakes during cooling. Other reasons why this might happen include over-mixing the batter, not using enough batter for the cake, not using enough liquid in the batter or baking the cake too long. Also, if baking more than one cake at a time, they should not be close together or the cakes may shrink when taken out to cool due to lack of sufficient ventilation during cooking.

Yes, it is certainly possible to make a cake with a pressure cooker. For advice on doing this, check out the wikiHow: How to Make a Cake Using a Pressure Cooker .

Sliced strawberries arranged artfully across the top of strawberry frosting would make a perfect match to a strawberry flavored cake. Just be sure to keep the cake refrigerated so the strawberries remain fresh. If you don't have fresh strawberries, try using strawberry shaped candies (gummy types, for example) and arrange them in a pattern on the top.

Cakes can "explode" or overflow for several reasons. A fairly common one is placing too much batter into too small of a pan, and the batter has nowhere else to go but over the sides like a mini volcano! Another common reason is that too much raising agent was added to the batter, which can happen by mistake or when experimenting with doubling or tripling a cake. In future, always ensure the batter and pan size are properly matched, and you'll avoid exploding cakes and if you are changing the ingredient amounts from the original recipe, do be careful!

It's best to follow a whole recipe for this cake rather than trying to explain all the details here, so do check out the wikiHows: How to Make a Red Velvet Cake and How to Make a Blue Velvet Cake for helpful advice.

No, the cake itself does not weigh a pound. The term "pound cake" dates back a few centuries to the 1700s, when the cake originally required one pound each of flour, butter, sugar and eggs. It was a simple way to remember what went in at a time when cake making was still a big experiment and over time, the ingredient types and ratios have changed considerably.

Use a large mixing spoon or a wooden spoon. They won't capture quite as much as a spatula would but they'll still pick up most of the batter. You can also use a knife to scrape off as much batter as possible at the end if you wish, although some cooks don't mind using their fingers instead (just be sure they're washed and dry first). Spatulas aren't expensive, so try to buy one on your next shopping trip; there should be one in the kitchenware section of your local supermarket.

A cake needs to be baked using even heat all the way around the oven. As such, if you are able to control which cooking coils are on in an oven, always make sure they're both on, top and bottom, to allow an even heat to flow throughout the oven and cook your cake evenly too.

There are several possibilities when a cake fails to rise. The first is the temperature of the oven––if the temperature is not accurate or drops dramatically during baking, the cake may fail to rise or may even sink after some rising. Use an oven thermometer to ensure the temperature is correct and resist the temptation to open the oven until late in the baking. A second reason could be that the leavening agent is out of date, usually the baking soda or baking powder––make sure it's fresh before using. And another reason can be that the batter was left to stand too long before the cake was added to the oven; always transfer the batter to the pan and then to the oven immediately after making.

One reason may be that the oven door was opened too early and the cake sank in the middle, or the cake was not baked long enough. Another reason can be that there was just too much liquid in the cake and the ratio of ingredients was unbalanced. Liquid additions aren't just milk or water but can include pureed fruit, sauces and juice.

It depends on the type of caking you're making. If you're making a round cake, then a round cake pan would be ideal, but you could also use something like a sheet cake pan or loaf pan for other types of cakes.

Cooking spray or buttering the pan works best.

Baking soda and baking powder are different -- baking soda is a salt (sodium bicarbonate) while baking powder is a leavening or rising agent. The two are not interchangeable.

When the pan is placed in the oven, the outside of the pan is warmed first, making the sides of the cake cook first, then the middle. Maybe you did not cook it for long enough or the temperature in your oven is uneven. Also check the quality of the pan used.

No, but a little salf helps the sweet flavors pop.

Yes, you can add food coloring to a cake. Many cakes, like the red velvet cake and rainbow cake, are made by adding food coloring to the cake mixture before baking.

The baking powder is not needed because pound cake has a heavier texture than regular cake.

It depends on your oven and the cake that you plan to make but usually a cake will take anywhere between about 20 to 40 minutes to bake. It all varies, so just stick to the instructions and you will be baking a tasty cake in no time!

No. Adding more liquid would likely make your cake soggy.

Most likely you haven't cooked it for long enough. Also when frosting, you need to wait about an hour after taking the cake out of the oven so that it has time to cool down. If you try to frost a hot cake, it won't work.

It depends on your preference. I personally like the apple one best, but it's up to you! If you're a first-time baker, I suggest starting with the vanilla pound cake and then doing the others.

Just follow the instructions to bake a cake and decorate it however you'd like. You can use frosting, sprinkles, cookies, or anything else! Make sure to add some candles and sing happy birthday before digging in.