Flourless Chocolate Cake Rising When Baked | Ask Nigella.com (2024)

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Flourless Chocolate Cake Rising When Baked | Ask Nigella.com? ›

Our answer

Since we're talking about cake and not yeast bread, we'll focus on chemical leavening. The reaction of baking soda or baking powder with the liquids in the batter releases carbon dioxide, which forms air bubbles to help your cakes be light and airy.

Why do cakes not rise? A: No or insufficient raising agent, mixture too stiff, mixture overbeaten or air knocked out, or insufficient whisking (whisked sponge). Too cool an oven.

Any baked good — especially cake —with too much flour will be dry, hard, crumbly … take your unhappy pick. For best results, please weigh your flour (and other ingredients).

Too much air and your cake will collapse because it simply can't hold onto all that air. Overbeating can add too much additional air and/or large air bubbles which the cake can't support, causing it to collapse in the oven.

Lower the oven temperature.

Most cake recipes call for setting the oven at 350°F. Instead, drop the temperature to 325°F. Lowering the oven temperature slows the rise in the leavening agent, so instead of the dreaded dome, you'll get cake with a beautiful flat top.

Use baking strips: These are long pieces of fabric that are soaked in ice cold water before being wrapped around the outside of your cake tin to stop it heating up too quickly. If you don't have baking strips, you can try double wrapping it in foil.

If the batter contains too much raising agent, this may result in a cake rising too quickly. Reduce the amount of raising agent. If the baking pan is too small, the batter has nowhere to go but up. It will then form a dome, and eventually crack.

If a recipe includes a lot of acid such as lemon juice and buttermilk and isn't lifted with enough baking powder, the cake will taste dense. In that case, you may need the addition of baking soda which will react with the acid and create a fluffier crumb.

Why does my chocolate cake rise in the middle? ›

The cake pan is heating up much faster than the rest of the cake. This causes the edges to set before the cake has risen fully, and as the rest of the cake cooks the centre rises and creates a dome. To stop your cake from doming, line the outsides of your cake tin with a double layer of foil.

The dessert contains no gluten which makes it acceptable for those with celiac disease, gluten-free diets, and during religious holidays in which gluten and grains are not permitted.

Flip, Tap, and Shake

For this tactic, invert a large plate on top of the cake pan, preferably your cake's serving dish. Hold the plate firmly in place and flip it so the plate is on the bottom. Tap and gently shake the pan so the cake slowly releases and comes out in one beautiful piece.

Cakes sink in the middle due to several factors, including overmixing of the batter, opening the oven door too soon, or not baking at the right temperature. Expired leavening agents or incorrect proportions of ingredients can also cause sinking.

If the batter contains too much raising agent, this may result in a cake rising too quickly. Reduce the amount of raising agent. If the baking pan is too small, the batter has nowhere to go but up. It will then form a dome, and eventually crack.

lower the baking temperature: a high oven temperature will cause the edges to bake quickly and the middle to rise. Consider baking your cakes at lower temperatures for longer to bake a flat cake without a dome.

Now the science part: cakes rise because the baking soda reacts with acidic ingredients to produce tiny bubbles of CO2 that get trapped in the cake mixture. When heat is added, the air bubbles expand and the cake rises while baking.