Cookery is quite interesting science that not everyone can master. However, many people would love to cook tasty cakes and enjoy eating them. By the way, some people make mistakes in the baking process and as a result, they get a crumbly cake.
In this article, we will expose the reasons for a crumbly cake and how to pretend and solve this issue.
Cake recipes
Before starting, let’s look at the ingredients of the cake recipe and their roles. There are 4 main cake ingredients:
Cake flour
Flour is one of the most important ingredients. It absorbs all the moisture and increases the thickness of the cake batter.
Sugar
Sugar breaks down fats and controls the cake rise.
It helps to keep the structure of the cake and pretends it to become dry and crumbly since it contains gluten.
Sugar also adds sweetness.
Eggs
Eggs are the main source of proteins. They increase the ductility and volume of the cake batter, rising the cake and normalizing its structure.
Butter
This ingredient enhances and improves the texture and taste of the cake.
If all these ingredients are in the right combination, a thick cake will be formed with tiny air bubbles.
Reasons leading to the crumbly cake
In the baking process, you need to carefully measure the number of ingredients. The correct combination of them makes your cake perfect. However, what does turn a normal cake into a dry and crumbly cake?
Long cake mixture
Mixing cake batter forces the proteins to combine and creates strands of gluten. Nevertheless, if you mix the batter for a very long time, more and more gluten will be formed. Consequently, your cake will become solid and dry.
Moreover, you should mix in order. For cakes and biscuits, dry and liquid ingredients have to be mixed separately. Flour with sugar, salt, and spices. Eggs with milk and butter. Only after that, you can mix all of them.
Not sifting cake batter
Besides cleaning the cake batter of impurities, sifting also satiates the cake batter with air.
Thanks to this, the batter will rise better, and the pastry will turn out tender and airy.
If you make the batter with baking powder, you need to sift it together with flour, so it will be distributed more evenly.
Too much flour, sugar, and the other ingredients
As it was mentioned before, cookers should measure the elements exactly without any incorrections to avoid making a cake crumbly.
If you add too much flour, the cake batter will be tight, and not rise well, and the bakery will be flat and hard. Too little flour is bad and leads to a crumbly cake.
Not enough sugar, oil, or eggs can be devastating for your chocolate cake. Consequently, the cake will be dry and crumbly because of the absorption of all the moisture. Too much gluten has negative effects which cause a dry cake.
That is why it is crucial to have precise measurements to bake a good and moist cake.
Keeping the products in a refrigerator for a long time
On the one hand, while the batter is soft, it sticks. So, it needs to stand in the refrigerator to pretend to stick. Some cakes are prepared from chill products.
On the other hand, often warm ingredients are necessary for baking cakes. Just imagine how much the batter will rise if you start it in cold water. Moreover, cold products make a cake dry and crumbly.
Improper fermentation
Usually, the cake crumbles after baking. This is due to improper fermentation. The reason is the gluten factor that could not develop correctly and form the bonds, which give the dough the necessary elasticity.
Replacing the ingredients
Another reason for the crumbly cake is replacing the main ingredients. For example, some people replace harmful sugar with healthy honey. However, honey is a tricky product. It greatly affects the structure of the entire cake, unlike sugar.
It is better to exclude sugar altogether and spread the finished bun with honey.
Putting a cake in an unheated oven
While you are making the dough, the oven is preheating. Usually, the actual temperature is 356 degrees Fahrenheit. If the dough is put in a cold oven, you will get a crumbly cake that is not raised well.
Opening the oven door during a heating process
Remember that even one careless movement makes your cake crumbly. In the first 20 minutes, it is better not to touch the oven.
The dough can fall apart with the slightest vibration.
You need to set a timer to avoid getting crumbly cakes and check them when they should be ready, theoretically.
How to avoid preparing crumbly cakes
A crumbled cake has plenty of defects in terms of the number of ingredients because of the wrong cake recipe. Other reasons, which cause a crumbly cake, are described above. So, how to fix this issue?
First of all, plan the exact size of your cake and define the amount of flour. Typically, people use 400 grams of flour for 600 grams of dough. The coefficient is 1 to 1.5. Avoid too much flour because eventually, it will get dry and leads to a cake crumble.
Control the amount of sugar as well. It is the main ingredient that gives a cake a sweet taste and breaks down fats. Not enough sugar will make a cake fall apart without sweetness.
Second of all, set a baking time correctly. An overbaked cake is a usual problem when people bake cakes. 30-40 minutes are enough for baking cakes.
Control the temperature of the oven to keep the cake moist. The average temperature is around 356 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). It is a perfect cake consistency.
Moreover, you need to sift flour. A cake must rise and become soft.
Do not overmix a cake. If you think that when the cake is thoroughly mixed and beaten, it will be better, then you are mistaken. Ordinarily, the dough needs to be mixed so that the liquid absorbs the all-purpose flour. This process should take 10-12 minutes.
Control the number of fats. Without fats, you will get a dry and crumbly cake. To avoid this problem, you should add more oil. 2-3 tablespoons of oil are enough. If your recipe includes margarine, use only trusted brands that apply to the standards for quality and fat content.
A balanced fat concentration increases the elasticity of the dough and prevents the cake from crumbling.
Alternate the recipe. If your cake is crumbly every time, reconsider your recipe. You can add moisture and some healthy fruits such as bananas and yogurt. That will reduce the concentration of fats if it is too much and maintain low calories.
Do not forget about the cake decorations. You can add whipped cream to make it look attractive and taste nice.
Follow all the steps described above, and your crumbly cake will turn into a juicy and tasty cake.
What should I do with a crumbly cake?
If you prepared a crumbly cake, do not throw it in the garbage. There are few options to benefit from crumbles. Let’s look at the options.
Make cake pops. Cake pops are quite a sweet treat nowadays. The peculiarity of its details: balls on sticks decorated with multicolored sprinkles. Therefore, they are one of the important products of candy bars and are mostly loved by children.
So, you are allowed to make some cake pops from the crumbs. We are sure that you will like them a lot.
Make cake crumb biscuits. It is usual to bake biscuits from crumbs. They are popular at weddings and other big events due to their taste.
Make a topping. Another great idea is turning your crumbly cake into some toppings. Crumbles can fit ice-creams very well.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we found out that baking a cake is a pretty complicated business. Everyone loves tasty, moist, and healthy cake as a dessert for special events. However, not many people like it when a cake is crumbly and dry.
The main reasons why some cakes crumble are the disbalance of the ingredients, overmixing, absence of sifting, mistakes in setting cooking time and temperature, and lack of patience.
Beware, that too much flour and not enough sugar with fats can destroy your cake. Measure all the ingredients precisely and choose the recipe correctly.
Long-time cake mix does not improve the condition of the cake. It makes it even worse. 20 minutes of mixing is enough according to bakers.
Setting the time and the temperature is essential. Overcooked cakes are not good at all because they are crumbling without any moisture or taste.
Also, products for baking have to be warm. A cake should be prepared from chilled ingredients. If you start the process in cold water, the dough will rise for a very long time and become dry. Eggs and milk, all of them, need to be at room temperature. So take food out of the fridge ahead of time.
Lastly, be patient while you are baking. Do not open the oven every 5 minutes to see if the cake is ready. Do not be harsh when you are mixing and heating the cake.
You can also turn the crumbs into something tasty and beneficial. For example, prepare from them cake pops, crumb biscuits, and toppings. All of them are useful and delicious.
We hope that this article was useful and that you can avoid your cake being crumbly. Bake it until you make it and enjoy your cake.
FAQ
Why is my cake crumbly and dry? A cake might be crumbly due to the wrong amount of ingredients and inappropriate methods of baking.
For instance, if you add too much flour or too little fat, then the cake will be dry. Furthermore, if you set the wrong time and temperature for cooking, it will be overcooked so no one can eat it.
Overmixing and beating are bad for your cake too because they will cause too much gluten in the product. Eventually, such a cake mix will turn into a dry and crumbly cake.
Why is my cake breaking apart? Excess flour absorbs all the moisture in the cake, so you should avoid it. The lack of liquid brings to breaking the cake apart. As the result, a cake will be either solid or crumbling and lose its flexibility.
How do you fix a crumbly cake? There are a few ways to fix this problem.
Correctly measure all the ingredients. You may watch tutorials if you struggle to bake. Above there are some measurements for flour and oil. The number of other ingredients is important as well.
Correctly use techniques for baking a cake. Do not overmix the dough, and mix the dry and liquid ingredients separately. Sift flour properly to make a cake softer and airy.
Take food out of the refrigerator in advance to save time and avoid drying.
Correctly choose the time and temperature for heating to avoid overcooking. 30-40 minutes in the oven under 356 degrees Fahrenheit is quite enough.
In case you baked a crumbly cake, you still can fix it. Crumbs can turn into something interesting and tasty. For example, make a cake pop that is so much loved by children because of the taste. Cramb biscuits are also an option since they are sweet and not difficult to bake. The last one is making toppings out of crumbs. Just do not throw the cake away.
