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Baking Soda mishap

post #1 of 13
6/25/12 at 5:30pm
Thread Starter 
Last night I baked 3 layers of Eggless "Crazy" Chocolate Cake for a wedding that I have due on Sunday. In the middle of the night I woke up and realized that I forgot to add the flavoring to the batter.

Tonight I was measuring out the ingredients so I could rebake them. I was measuring the baking soda and measured out 9 tablespoons (triple recipe). After I got it measured and into the dry ingredients bowl I realized that I had read the measurement from the ingredient on the next line and I should have used 3 tablespoons (I thought) instead. I removed 5 tablespoons of the baking soda and figured I would be okay with the 4 tablespoons left because I wanted to add extra anyway because when I did the test run I added 1/2 tsp extra. After I mixed the dry ingredients together I noticed that the measure should have been teaspoons and not tablespoons.

Is there any way to save this without having to add more ingredients to make up the difference? What will happen if I just continue with the way it is? Will it rise to much and cause problems. This will be the top tier of a topsy turvy cake.

Thanks in advance.
Thanks,

Myra
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Thanks,

Myra
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post #2 of 13
6/25/12 at 7:28pm
This cake has more problems than you realize. That much excess baking soda will cause serious structural problems and taste real nasty. Best thing is to start again and just think of it as a learning experience. Happens to all of us.
website www.BakingFix.com
blog www.BakingFix.com/thefix
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website www.BakingFix.com
blog www.BakingFix.com/thefix
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/MimiFix
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post #3 of 13
6/25/12 at 8:40pm
Well this is a perfect example of WHY the cook should taste the batter that is left in the bowl, BEFORE the cake goes into the oven. That would have allowed the original mistake to be corrected.

You could discard just the dry ingredients because that is where you know you made a mistake.

I print my working recipes out in 16 point font. I also recommend that you buy a good scale because that is how much money you threw away these two times. Working in ounces for the big stuff and in grams for the leavening means that you are weighing a number that is not subject to being mistaken so quickly.

I also had some unpleasant cakes, made with baking powder from the bulk food store, and I think they mixed some baking soda in by mistake. I didn't lose as much as you have, but still...it's not fun.
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post #4 of 13
6/25/12 at 8:58pm
Yeah you need to start over. This happened to me with a batch of chocolate cupcakes last week. I was scaling up the Hersheys chocolate recipe. My recipe was printed in a font that I was straining my eyes to see and the recipe is new to me so I didn't know it off-hand. Added way more cocoa powder than necessary and it happened twice back to back. Sometimes the mind can be far as well. In addition to using small font. I now use a larger font as well to print my recipes.I had to dump both sets of dry ingredients and made a mental note of the lost $$$.
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post #5 of 13
6/25/12 at 9:40pm
Thread Starter 
I added more flour to the batch and pudding mix as well. When I tasted the batter it tasted pretty good so I went ahead and baked it. Actually this is the third try on this recipe. The first one didn't seem done (I froze it anyway just in case) so I decided to do a second round. The second round I forgot to add the flavoring, and you all know about the third. The third round had one of the pans run over in the oven even though I had a collar on the pan, it pushed the collar up on two of the pans but only ran over on one. I am going to let it set over night and see how it is in the morning. It doesn't look like it may be done as well. The bottom of the cake is really wet.

The cupcakes I made for the test tasting was this difficult. I wonder how the bride would feel about a giant cupcake on top of her topsy turvy wedding cake?!!!!

Oh well, I can see number four coming my way. Eggless cakes are a pain in the you know what.

Thanks everyone for your responses.
Thanks,

Myra
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Thanks,

Myra
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post #6 of 13
6/26/12 at 8:43pm
Thread Starter 
I came home from work tonight and leveled the cakes. After tasting the trimmings, it tasted just fine. My husband thought so also. I guess I won't have to make a number four after all. Thanks for the comments and help everyone.
Thanks,

Myra
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Thanks,

Myra
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post #7 of 13
6/27/12 at 6:26am
I have inadvertently doubled the baking soda in red velvet cupcakes, on 2 occasions - clearly I didn't learn the first time. I didn't realise until I baked them. Aside from coming out brown instead of red, they tasted of soap. Please try your trimmings again...ensure they don't taste icky at all, before decorating them for someones wedding!
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post #8 of 13
6/27/12 at 1:02pm
Dayti, what was the texture when you doubled the baking soda? I'm curious, that's all.
website www.BakingFix.com
blog www.BakingFix.com/thefix
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/MimiFix
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website www.BakingFix.com
blog www.BakingFix.com/thefix
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/MimiFix
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post #9 of 13
6/27/12 at 2:41pm
The texture was fine and they rose the usual amount, nothing strange happened so they "looked" fine, but tasted disgusting. I also remember each time I did it I was making 20 dozen. The first and second time. Had it been 1 dozen I probably wouldn't have been so mad at myself... icon_redface.gif
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post #10 of 13
6/27/12 at 8:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kimbm04r

I came home from work tonight and leveled the cakes. After tasting the trimmings, it tasted just fine. My husband thought so also. I guess I won't have to make a number four after all. Thanks for the comments and help everyone.



You had about 12 teaspoons (4T) of baking SODA in that batter rather than 4 (and the recipe actually asked for 3 teaspoons) and it still tastes good? Unless you tripled the other ingredients, I really don't know how this cake will taste "okay." Did you tort the layers? I know when I used too much baking soda once my cakes looked okay on the outside but were gummy with weird tunnels in the middle and tasted like soap. Is this a free cake or are they paying for it?... not that it should matter much but...
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post #11 of 13
6/28/12 at 6:52pm
Thread Starter 
I took today and Friday off so I can work on this cake. I decided to rebake these cakes today and I feel so much better about them now.

I will post pictures of the cake when I get it done. I am really nervous about this since it is a topsy turvy and I don't need anything else messing it up especially since it is for a friend of my daughter (she was in her wedding 3 years ago).
Thanks,

Myra
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Thanks,

Myra
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post #12 of 13
6/29/12 at 1:04pm
I hope your cake turns out well when you do re-bake them. My co-worker is 72 and she told me a story of when she young and a newlywed. She decided to make some sort of bread and it was supposed to be donut shaped. Well, she figured more baking soda would be better so she added a lot to the dough. It rose so much int he oven and it came out looking like a tire. Her and her husband could not stop laughing at her mistake. It does seem odd though that the cake was fine after putting so many tablespoons of baking soda. Usually the quantities are in teaspoons.

Well, good luck! icon_smile.gif
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post #13 of 13
7/1/12 at 5:21pm
Thread Starter 
I said I would post a picture of the Wedding cake, here it is. I rebaked the eggless cake and really glad I did. It turned out great

You will notice the cake beside it was the results of my very first attempt at a Topsy Turvy. This wedding cake is the one I was doing the practices for.

The bride was very happy. I delivered it 2 x 2 and had to do all the decorating once I got it to the Venue. The wedding was at 2:30 and the reception was at 6:00 so there was all kinds of people watching me as I set it up and decorate it In fact the wedding photographer took several pictures while I was decorating it.

Thank you everyone for your help on this eggless cake problem.

http://cakecentral.com/gallery/user/kimbm04r/
Thanks,

Myra
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Thanks,

Myra
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