Hello, expert bakers, I'm hoping someone out there will be able to explain why I got this result.
So, I was experimenting with the following recipe to see if I could make it more consistent. It's an old family favorite that was originally baked in a tube pan and I love the flavor so I've been trying to figure out how to use it for layer cakes.
Here's the original: Chocolate sour cream pound cake
Cream:
3 sticks butter
3 c. sugar
Add 1 at a time:
5 eggs
Mix dry, add alt. with sour cream
3 c. unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 c. cocoa powder (reg. not dutched)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
8 oz. sour cream
Mix in:
1 c. boiling water
2 tsp. vanilla
The only changes I made were to sub cake flour for the unbleached all-purpose (by weight, not volume) and coffee for the water. I'd always made this with unbleached all-purpose, but since I'd read that bleached flour was better for cakes, I wanted to try it that way and see what happened.
Baked at 325 in two ten in. round pans, the cake domed quite a bit, but looked fine when I took it out. When I cut off the dome, there were enormous (larger than the tip of my thumb) holes throughout the cake. This recipe is normally very fine textured. The cake was also much fluffier, almost to the point of being dry, whereas it is normally extremely moist.
My first thought with the holes was uneven distribution of leavening, but I sifted together the dry ingredients, and then whisked them until the cocoa color was even, so I doubt that is the problem. I'm stumped as to why I got these results. So what do you guys think?
Anyone know of a baking chemistry explanation for these results?
So, I was experimenting with the following recipe to see if I could make it more consistent. It's an old family favorite that was originally baked in a tube pan and I love the flavor so I've been trying to figure out how to use it for layer cakes.
Here's the original: Chocolate sour cream pound cake
Cream:
3 sticks butter
3 c. sugar
Add 1 at a time:
5 eggs
Mix dry, add alt. with sour cream
3 c. unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 c. cocoa powder (reg. not dutched)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
8 oz. sour cream
Mix in:
1 c. boiling water
2 tsp. vanilla
The only changes I made were to sub cake flour for the unbleached all-purpose (by weight, not volume) and coffee for the water. I'd always made this with unbleached all-purpose, but since I'd read that bleached flour was better for cakes, I wanted to try it that way and see what happened.
Baked at 325 in two ten in. round pans, the cake domed quite a bit, but looked fine when I took it out. When I cut off the dome, there were enormous (larger than the tip of my thumb) holes throughout the cake. This recipe is normally very fine textured. The cake was also much fluffier, almost to the point of being dry, whereas it is normally extremely moist.
My first thought with the holes was uneven distribution of leavening, but I sifted together the dry ingredients, and then whisked them until the cocoa color was even, so I doubt that is the problem. I'm stumped as to why I got these results. So what do you guys think?
Anyone know of a baking chemistry explanation for these results?
