Flops are essential to the journey of becoming a better baker (and a better anything). Although it's frustrating in the moment because of lost ingredients and time, it's important to remember that nothing is perfect and the fails can be something to laugh about and look back on! I have baking flops often, but have found that their lessons are the most valuable. Here are four that have helped improve my baking the most:
1. Split cakes from slippery fillings.
This cake was for my family's party and almost completely split in half on the way there! The filling was meringue with lemon curd underneath, which both tend to be more slippery than buttercream. The extra moisture caused the cake layers to slide and eventually split. This has happened to a few of my cakes, but my family kindly still ate the deconstructed versions.
To fix this, Cake by Courtney suggests piping a ring of buttercream around the border of the cake before adding in the filling. This locks the filling in and helps to prevent it from seeping out:
For additional effectiveness, refrigerate or freeze the whole cake for 30 minutes after doing this for each layer. This hardens the buttercream and really helps the filling to stay put. It also makes it easier to frost the outside of the cake.
I now do this for soft fillings including whipped cream, jam, fudge, mousse, lemon curd, marshmallow, and meringue.
2. Cheesecake made with lots of air & moisture.
My first cheesecake smirked at me. Research says an unhappy cheesecake may be caused by too much air and moisture in the batter. Both create bubbles that expand and release during baking and break the structure if in excess. Many recipes suggest gently mixing room-temperature ingredients to prevent the incorporation of air into the batter. They also recommend ingredients that are lower in moisture (e.g. using cream instead of milk) to create less steam and therefore reduce the chance of the cheesecake deflating.
3. Forgetting to set a timer.
These muffins got extra crispy because I forgot to check on them. Timers are a game-changer!
4. Sunken cake centers.
The first year I really got into baking, every cake I made sunk in the center. KitchenAid says that this can result from a variety of things such as opening the oven door before the cake has fully set. In my case, it was always from adding too much leavening (you could even taste the baking soda). I wanted the cakes to be super fluffy and thought that adding more leavening would accomplish that. In the end, baking recipes are all about the proportions of ingredients. A little bit of acid in the form of buttermilk, sour cream, or lemon juice reacts with baking soda to neutralize the taste and create bubbles. An adequate amount of flour in cake batter will lend a cake structure that's firm enough to support all those air bubbles. Pioneer Woman recommends 1 teaspoon of baking powder per 1 cup of flour as a good rule of thumb.
These are just some of my baking fails...but they have all been great ways to learn. The answer to almost any baking conundrum can be found on Google, which shows how common they are and how quickly they can be solved.