Page 24 - YC Cooking School

6. Add flour and liquids in alternating stages

When adding the flour and liquids, add them in alternating stages, stirring gently
between each addition. This is so you don't overwork the flour and further
activate the gluten, which results in a tough and rubbery cake.
7. Use raising agents with care
Carefully measure your raising agents as adding too much can cause the cake to
rise up and then flop back down. If you don’t have enough self-raising flour,
substitute by adding two teaspoons of baking powder for every cup of plain
flour.
As a general rule, baking powder causes ingredients to rise upwards and baking
soda causes ingredients to rise outwards and spread. That’s why you’ll often find

that recipes combine the two.
8. Combine dry ingredients together
Always sieve or whisk together baking powder or baking soda with your flour
and other dry ingredients (such as salt, cinnamon, etc.) before adding these
ingredients to the liquids in your recipe. If not, it will be unevenly distributed,
which can mean an uneven rise with pockets of air bubbles.
9. Testing for doneness
The best way to check if your cake is cooked is to insert a metal or bamboo

skewer into the centre. If it comes out clean, it’s ready. Start checking when you
can smell the cake and the minimum baking time has elapsed. Opening the
oven prematurely will affect the air circulation. You can also gently press onto
the surface of your cake with your finger and if it springs back, it’s ready.
10. Cool before icing
Leave your cake to cool for a couple of minutes in the baking tin before running
a spatula or knife around the inside edge and turning it out onto a wire cooling
rack. Make sure your cake has cooled completely before icing.

Tools used in the video:

Below you will find the list of all the tools we used in lesson 4. To see the full Cake Basics
collection, head this way.

2x round cake tin, 20cm
Mixing bowl

Stand mixer
Kitchen scale
Spatula
Measuring spoons
Sieve, 20.5cm
Cake tester
Sieve, 7.5cm

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