Why does the biscuit settle and what can I do to prevent it from settling? Why does the biscuit settle and what to do about it? The biscuit does not bake in the oven.

A celebration is coming up, a three-tiered cream giant is in the plans, and you want to conquer all the guests with the talent of an excellent pastry chef? Then you especially need to know why the sponge cake does not bake or falls after baking, as well as at what temperature it is baked and for how long. You can get all the necessary information regarding the insidiousness of the biscuit from this post, and if you use it, success will await you.

All women have an incredible sweet tooth. Sometimes even such persistent extra pounds cannot overcome the craving for confectionery products. And in a fit of true love, many housewives try to conjure some tasty little thing for tea in the kitchen.

The “trifle” can be three-tiered cakes, rolls stuffed with cream, the most delicate cupcakes, in general, something that is based on this incredibly tasty, but no less capricious – sponge cake.

However, this “Olympus” is not so easy to conquer, and often the ardor of cooks fades away at the sight of a failed masterpiece. So much work, and everything is down the drain. It is not surprising that the activity of the pastry chef, which began so spontaneously, is supported by a lot of pressing questions: “Why is the sponge cake raw inside, how many minutes does it need to be baked, at what temperature, or why does it settle?” and others, others...

However, it is worth sorting everything out in order.

Question No. 1: Why do they add starch to biscuits?

Often in recipe descriptions you can see that starchy powder is added to the dough along with the main components. In this regard, a reasonable question arises: why is there starch in a biscuit?

We should probably start with the fact that this component, depending on the plant from which it is extracted, is presented in a fairly wide range, namely, corn, soy, cassava, rice and other types of starches are used in cooking. In confectionery, they often resort to potato and wheat.

The starch in the biscuit is designed to eliminate excess moisture, which allows the product to turn out airy and tender. If, when kneading the dough, you replace 30% of the flour with wheat starch, you will notice that the volume of the cakes increases during baking, their structure becomes lighter and grainier, and the cake or roll comes out incredibly soft.

However, it is worth remembering that if you use potato powder, then it should be dissolved in dairy or fermented milk products, and also pay special attention to vanilla or any other flavoring, since starch from potatoes helps to suppress the taste of the finished product.

Question No. 2: How to make a fluffy sponge cake?

You've probably noted more than once that store-bought cakes have such thick layers that, willy-nilly, you feel a twinge of envy and try to figure out how to achieve this in your home-baked goods? It should be noted that this is not one or two rules, but a whole set of measures aimed at achieving excellent results.

Question No. 3: Why does the sponge cake fall down or not rise at all?

Many housewives have had to deal with the problem that when baking a sponge cake does not rise, and if it does rise, it always falls down afterwards. And it becomes so offensive, because we try to follow all the subtleties and rules, but apparently we are missing something. And this is exactly so, there are several reasons for this “pigish” behavior of the cakes.

1. The temperature regime is extremely important for baking such a confectionery product, so even the slightest violation of this rule entails negative consequences. An old oven can leak air, thereby disturbing the temperature; this includes regularly opening the oven door in the midst of the process. In addition, a malfunction of the oven can lead to uneven heat distribution and the cake may end up lopsided. And this is just one of the factors why the biscuit settles after baking.
2. Violation of the cooking technique can also have a detrimental effect on the quality of the pastry chef. Perhaps during the process of kneading the dough, the proportions were not met, or the products were overly cooled, the whites were poorly beaten, a bad baking powder was used, and so on.
3. Careless handling of the dough is another reason why the sponge cake shrinks. For example, if you hit or shake a mold with a mass poured into it, then, alas and ah, you should not even dream of a fluffy cake. Also, you should not hit the bottom of the baking sheet when removing the sponge cake, because it is so delicate.
4. Removing the baked goods early usually results in a nice, smooth sponge cake that looks like a bowl. Make sure the dough bakes evenly.
5. After preparing the dough, you have absolutely no time to chat with your girlfriend or take a break with a Kit-Kat; you need to immediately put everything in the mold and sing off into the hot oven.

For the multicooker owner

Owners of multicookers, for example, often boast about their huge biscuits, but among them there are “losers” who, instead of a plump sweet bun, get a flat pancake.

The rules for this unit are basically similar to a conventional oven: set the temperature and time settings correctly, do not open the lid during baking, but there is one point that is quite tricky. Some people try to create an incredibly tall monster, such that when raised, it closes the multicooker valve and spoils all the circulation of warm air.

Well, dear ladies, don’t be lazy, well, better make two mediocre and successful cakes, then happiness will smile on you.

Question No. 4: Why is the sponge cake not baked in the middle and how to check its readiness?

Many newly minted “confectioners” are wondering how to determine whether the baked goods are ready, whether they are baked? There are a couple of ways to find out.

You can check the readiness of the cake by piercing it in the center with a wooden stick. If, after removing our “dosimeter” from the baked goods, it is dry at the end, then hurray, comrades, the shortbread was a great success, because otherwise the piece of wood will be sticky, with dough residues.

Another factor that signals the readiness of a sponge cake is its appearance; if you find that the baked goods have somewhat shrunk in the mold, that is, moved away from the walls, then this can be regarded as the readiness of the product.

However, such bummers often happen that on the outside the shortbread looks amazing, but on the inside it is soft, floppy and clearly unprepared. So what to do if the biscuit is not baked?

Initially, you need to determine why exactly such nonsense happened.

Big dose of sugar

Often, a half-baked cake can be the result of a technology error in kneading the dough. If, in the hope of making the future cake even sweeter, a naive housewife put twice as much sugar in it, then you shouldn’t expect a perfect biscuit. The same goes for flour, if you put in less it’s bad, if you put in more it’s the same. It’s worth remembering once and for all that biscuit is not something to joke about and neglecting proportions is certain “death” for the future confectionery product.

Temperature

The second and most common mistake is a broken biscuit baking mode, that is, the temperature and time were not selected correctly. Either you overheated the oven and the dough simply baked too quickly around the edges without ever reaching the center. Or, on the contrary, the degrees in the oven are not enough and the time that you have measured for baking is simply not enough.

How to finish baking a biscuit

But how can we save such a “miracle” and bake it until it’s completely ready? First, check the temperature in the stove, if it is high, reduce it, if it is low, increase it. Secondly, so that the crust, which is already sufficiently fried on top, does not burn, it should be covered with foil and left in the oven to finish baking, periodically poking it with a stick to check. That, in principle, is all science is.

Question No. 5: How long does it take to bake a biscuit?

Many recipes for sponge cakes specify a baking time of 30-40 minutes on average, but this does not mean that any cakes are baked for that long.

Of course, its taste parameters and quality characteristics depend on how long the biscuit is prepared. After all, if you overexpose the product in the oven, it will become dry, dense and tasteless, and if, on the contrary, you underexpose it, then there is a risk of getting a sticky and gloopy mass instead of a tasty and tender crumpet.

Naturally, the baking time depends on the temperature of exposure, as well as on what kind of cake you need, whether it is for a cake or for a roll, that is, the thickness of the dough is of main importance.

• For rolls, the time mode varies within 10-15 minutes.
• For cakes, from 25 minutes to 1 hour.

Question No. 6: At what temperature do you bake the sponge cake?

Preparing a biscuit is, of course, a tricky business, in which every nuance can affect the appearance and taste of the product. Therefore, everything needs to be taken into account, even the choice of temperature for a certain type of dough.

• For butter sponge cake, the baking temperature should not exceed 180 o C.
• The simplest cake should be baked in a well-heated oven at 200-220 o C.

Place the pan with the dough in the oven only after making sure that it is warm enough, otherwise you will have to re-read question No. 3.

In addition, you should not leave the product in the oven after cooking, so as not to dry out. This rule does not apply to a multicooker. When working with this device, on the contrary, after finishing baking, the cake should be left inside for 10 minutes, this way you can avoid the rapid fall of the sponge cake.

Question No. 7: Why does the biscuit crack and rise up in a slide?

And what kind of dirty tricks does the biscuit come up with to irritate the housewives. It doesn’t rise, it doesn’t fall, and it doesn’t bake, but in addition, it does absolutely terrible things - it swells up like a slide, bursts and pretends to be a volcano, spewing out liquid dough.

Heat

What could be the reason behind this character trait of this whimsical baked goods? Heat! This is the main point. If you have heated the oven to hellish flames, then the biscuit will behave inappropriately, the top will quickly bake, and inside the dough will simply boil and, under pressure, raise a mound, and in more advanced cases, it will burst and leak out.

Dear girls, remember, how long and at what temperature you bake the biscuit depends on the outcome of the entire culinary event.

Overdose of flour

However, this is not the only reason why baked goods can crack. It happens especially noticeably on cupcakes that cracks appear on top of the finished product. Everything can be explained by a banal excess of flour proportions in the recipe, or during baking you simply dried out the sponge cake.

Question No. 8: Why does the sponge cake turn out rubbery?

One of the most common mistakes in preparing biscuits is eggs, or rather, not beating them correctly. Firstly, the eggs should be very carefully divided into whites and yolks and beaten separately with sugar, and the dosage of sand should not be changed, but strictly followed the recipe. Yes, yes, biscuit is a capricious thing. If the whipped egg foam is not dense enough, then the shortbread will end up “rubbery”.

You should also mix all the ingredients as gently as possible so that the foam does not settle.

Question No. 9: Why does the sponge cake smell like eggs?

And so it was a success, chic, lush and airy. But what is this?! The smell of eggs spoils all the hard work done. The biscuit recipe contains a large number of eggs; for some, this smell is not noticeable in the finished product, but some particularly sensitive individuals simply cannot bite off a tiny piece. In addition, eggs from domestic chickens make the smell even more expressive than store-bought goods. In addition, those shortcakes that contain soda also smell of egg.

What to do in such a situation? If soda can still be replaced with a more harmless baking powder, then giving up eggs is not an option at all. Then there is only one solution, masking the smell. This is why vanillin or various artificial food flavors are added to the dough.

Another way to overcome an unpleasant aroma is to soak the cakes in syrup or confectionery cognac, which will also give the cake or roll a unique rich taste.

Question No. 10:

The originality of the baking design makes it even more attractive to those with a sweet tooth. Making a dark or striped cake is not such a difficult task, you just need to add cocoa powder to half the cakes (mix it with flour while kneading the dough).

You can also often see orange, pink and other rainbow-colored biscuits, the coloring of which is achieved using food coloring added to the dough. Such products are incredibly colorful, interesting and children like them. However, are you ready to stuff a tasty treat with chemicals for the sake of momentary beauty?

Question No. 11:

Biscuit, compared to many other flour products, has a rather modest calorie content.

• The “enemy” shortbread in the classic recipe, which uses sugar, eggs and flour, has 258 kcal per 100 g.
• Butter biscuit has an energy value close to 300 kcal per 100g.
• If you add cream, jam and other ointments that are so generously used to coat the confectionery, then you can safely, regardless of all diets, crunch the cake without a twinge of conscience. But why not, if 0.1 kg contains more than 400 kcal, then what difference does it make, how much you eat, you still won’t become thinner.

Having measured how much time it takes to bake a sponge cake and the amount of nerves spent on it, you can wonder whether it’s worth bothering with it at all. However, having mastered the skills of cooking this seemingly simple, but terribly capricious confectionery product, you will certainly not experience problems with others.

Perfectly smooth sponge cake

Sponge cakes are one of our favorites. The sponge cake is combined with a variety of creams, fruits, layers, mousses, therefore, having at your disposal a lush and tasty sponge cake, you can prepare a huge variety of cakes.

But very often, inexperienced housewives end up with a sponge cake with a lump in the middle. If you then cut the biscuit into pieces, it does not matter. But in order for all layers of sponge cake and cream to be even in a birthday cake, you should bake a sponge cake with a flat surface.

Housewives often cut off the swelling in the middle, crumble it and use it to sprinkle the sides of the cake. But you can take into account some tricks and your biscuit will always have a perfectly flat surface without any problems. In order to bake an even sponge cake, consider some nuances:

The prepared dough should be baked immediately. It shouldn't wait until the oven preheats and you prepare the pan, so everything should be ready in advance;

Preheat the oven to 180°C;

The mold must be covered with parchment paper, lightly greased with oil and sprinkled with flour. You should grease only the bottom, but not the walls, otherwise the dough will slide off the greased walls during baking and you will get a sponge cake that is swollen in the middle;

The form must be cold. If the dough does not lie flat in the pan, smooth it with a spatula and turn the pan with the dough on the table several times clockwise;

Cover the top of the pan with foil and secure it well around the pan;

Do not open the oven during baking to prevent the sponge cake from settling. The oven door should close tightly, the baking sheet in the oven should be level, and the pan itself, accordingly, should have a flat bottom;

If the biscuit has not risen, dried out, dried out in the oven, or turned out tough, do not throw it away. What can be made from a spoiled sponge cake can be much tastier than the planned pie. So, a few ideas for desserts made from dry, hard biscuit or its scraps.

Recently, for the first time in my life, I experienced a disappointment called “the biscuit did not rise.” I began to think about what to make from it, and in the process of experimenting I got a delicious delicacy, which is also very quick to prepare. So, the first option for recycling biscuit.

Beat 200 grams of butter with powdered sugar (70 grams) until it increases in volume, then add a can of boiled condensed milk, continuing to beat. When the mass is homogeneous, mix in a couple of handfuls of nuts (I used walnuts) and our hard biscuit, crushed in a blender to the state of either crumbs or flour. You can grind both dry and soft biscuits. My sponge cake was made with 5 eggs; this amount of “biscuit flour” made a fairly stiff dessert, reminiscent of Turkish sweets. It’s better that it be tight, that’s its highlight.

So, mix the biscuit crumbs into our mixture, then line the mold (baking tray, bowl) with film, put everything there, level it on top with a spatula, sprinkle with biscuit crumbs and flour, cover with film and put it in the refrigerator for several hours. This dessert is cut into slices to form a cake.

What to make from dried biscuit: option two and three

Biscuit crumbs are also well used as an aid in the preparation of other sweets. It can be used as a pillow in apple or cherry strudel. Place a 2 cm thick layer of crumbs on the dough and place the filling on top. This base will absorb all the excess juice that will be released from the fruit during baking, will prevent the dough from becoming soggy and will enrich the taste of the finished dessert. In chocolate strudel, biscuit crumbs are mixed with the filling, making the texture more interesting and the taste more multifaceted.

If the sponge cake has not risen, but is not hard either, you can make a cake out of it using the “Curly Pinscher” principle: dip small pieces of the sponge cake into the cream and pile them up mixed with nuts or canned fruit. Sprinkle grated chocolate, almond flakes or coconut on top.

So, to summarize. From a failed biscuit you can make:

• cake with condensed milk
• strudel
• curly pinscher

Sponge cake is a universal base. It goes well with all types of cream, chocolate, jam, soufflé. By changing the impregnations and layers you can make a variety of cakes. The biscuit tolerates freezing well, is stored well in the refrigerator, and can be made into cakes for future use. But they don't always work out. Why is this happening?

Eggs are not beaten well

The fluffiness of a classic sponge cake is achieved by beating eggs. They should increase in volume at least three times, and the sugar should completely dissolve. If the eggs are not beaten, then nothing good will come of it. It is wiser to use an electric mixer for cooking. You can take a blender with a special attachment. You won’t be able to achieve a fluffy mass using a hand whisk.

Why are the eggs not whipping?

They are not fresh. For the sponge cake, you need to use high-quality eggs at room temperature. There is fat in the bowl or on the mixer. Even a small drop of oil will not allow you to achieve a fluffy and airy consistency. The dishes need to be washed thoroughly, wiped dry with paper or cotton napkins, and only then break the eggs. The whites were beaten with the yolks. This can be done if the eggs are of high quality and the mixer has good power. But it makes more sense to beat the yolks separately with some of the sugar, and then the whites with the remaining sand. The sugar did not dissolve. You need to carefully lift all the sand from the bottom; there should be no grains in the biscuit. Sugar added early. Sand is added to the whites only after they have enlarged and thickened. If you turn the bowl over, the mixture should not spill out. Sugar is added in small portions; you cannot add everything at once.

It is believed that eggs are beaten worse in plastic dishes; it is wiser to choose metal bowls.

We break the eggs immediately into a large container, since even 4-5 pieces make quite a lot of fluffy and airy dough.

Flour according to all the rules!

If the eggs are beaten until fluffy and airy, then this is already 70% success. A sponge cake from such a mass will definitely turn out if it is not spoiled with flour. Very often the mistake is its quantity. In many recipes it is indicated in glasses, but they all have different sizes. If there is a lot of flour, the sponge cake turns out to be tough, dense, and it quickly becomes stale.

Important rule! There should not be a lot of flour, 40 grams per egg. This amount is reduced if cocoa powder and starch are added to the dough. But it does not decrease if pieces of chocolate and dried fruits are introduced. When adding wet and juicy ingredients (berries, fruits), the amount of flour is increased.

Other flour related errors:

The product was not sifted. And it's not about trash. In order for the flour to quickly and easily combine with the eggs, you need to add looseness. Sometimes the flour is sifted directly into the eggs, but you can do it that way. Stirring with a mixer. As a result, the egg mass loses its fluffiness. You need to stir the flour with your hand or a spatula and do not do it for long. You can use a mixer, but at minimum speed. Not all models have such a low speed. Adding flour to whites. If the eggs were separated for beating, then the flour is added to the yolks, and then the fluffy protein mass is added while stirring.

Very often, baking powder is added to biscuits, although this is not entirely according to the rules. If they are still added, then they need to be combined and sifted together with flour, only then added to the general dough. If this is not done, then the ripper cannot be distributed in a fluffy mass, and besides, there are often lumps in the powder.

Biscuit baking mistakes

It often happens that a sponge cake falls in the oven. Initially, the fluffy mass settles and sinks, resulting in a hard and small cake. Why is this happening? Most often the reason is shaking. The mold must be placed in the oven carefully, smoothly, and under no circumstances should you slam the door.

Basic baking rules:

Oven temperature 170-190 degrees.

At high settings, only thin roll biscuits are baked.

If the biscuit is not baked inside

, then you can reduce the temperature to 150 degrees.

The readiness of the cake is usually checked with a stick.

But you can also touch the top with your finger. If the hole is restored, the cake springs back, then the baked goods are ready not only on the outside, but also on the inside.

If the sponge cake rises well and then falls in the middle

, then it just wasn’t baked inside, it didn’t have enough time.

To prevent the biscuit from settling and becoming wrinkled after baking, it does not need to be cooled sharply. First, turn off the oven, open the door a little, let it harden, then remove it from the oven. Let it sit again. Only then take it out of the mold. It is advisable to cool the cake on a wire rack.

Why did the biscuit flake and crack?

It happens that the whites rise, a crispy meringue crust forms on top, and a dense crust remains below. This happens if you knead the dough in advance or do not preheat the oven. It must be turned on before beating the eggs. By the time you add flour, the oven should already be ready. Otherwise, the whites will definitely settle, and then the biscuit will crack.

Why doesn't the biscuit rise in the oven?

If the dough turns out very fluffy and airy, it is placed in a preheated oven, but rises poorly, then the reason may be in the shape. There is no need to generously grease the sides. The dough has nothing to cling to, it does not rise. To prevent this from happening, after greasing the surface is sprinkled with flour. Or they simply use silicone molds, or sometimes they make a ring out of parchment paper.

Why doesn't chiffon cake work out?

In addition to the classic sponge cake, there is also a chiffon cake with added fat. Usually this is melted butter, margarine or refined vegetable oil. These ingredients add tenderness, softness, and prevent the cake from drying out quickly, but sometimes they ruin everything.

Mistakes in preparing chiffon sponge cake:

Fats added early. The oil should be added at the very end, perhaps even after the flour, then it will not affect the fluffiness of the dough. The fats have not cooled down. If margarine or butter has been melted, it should be cooled to room temperature.

Sometimes sour cream, kefir and other dairy products are added to biscuits. In this case, the recipe must contain soda or baking powder. It’s difficult to hold and raise additional ingredients with just beaten eggs; you won’t get a fluffy cake.