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briliz
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i have followed cake receipes to make a "yellow" birthday cake and have failed miserably. This is the second time, I've followed recipes to the T, the cakes come out with a weird consistency and not tasting like cake.
The latest recipe I tried was very simple
4 cups cake flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup dairy-free margarine
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups soy milk (used allmond)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup silken tofu
mix the dry ingredients
mix the sugar and margarine until light and fluffy. Add the milk,vanilla, tofu and mix
add the cake flour mixture to the wet mixture.
bake at 375 x 25 minutes.
the consistency is weird, doesn't taste like birthday cake, what I was going for.
It's definitely a throw out!
The latest recipe I tried was very simple
4 cups cake flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup dairy-free margarine
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups soy milk (used allmond)
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup silken tofu
mix the dry ingredients
mix the sugar and margarine until light and fluffy. Add the milk,vanilla, tofu and mix
add the cake flour mixture to the wet mixture.
bake at 375 x 25 minutes.
the consistency is weird, doesn't taste like birthday cake, what I was going for.
It's definitely a throw out!
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Accepted Answer
Mattie
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Hi briliz,
That sounds frustrating! After going over your recipe I noticed that the inclusion of silken tofu and cake flour might be the issue. Many bakers believe that cakes need to use egg replacers but it turns out that as long as you're using all-purpose flour, the extra gluten content (compared to cake flour) is enough to work as a structure builder and facilitate the trapping or rising gas bubbles to help leavening.
Tofu is sometimes added to vegan baked goods where a dense hybrid between a cake and a cookie is desired, such as in cakey brownies. The combination of cake flour and tofu means that the gas produced by the baking powder and the steam produced by baking won't get trapped and result in leavening, leaving you with a brick.
If you're unable to find another cake recipe and you'd like to experiment with your existing recipe I would do the following:
1)
Lose the tofu and swap out the cake flour with all-purpose flour. To return the cake batter to cake batter consistency, add water or non-dairy milk if necessary.
2)
Keep an eye on the sugar. If the sugar level is too high in a cake recipe, your cake will never be able to rise and keep the rise without crashing. This is because extra sugar interferes with gluten's ability to bind together and create structure. Gluten requires water to bind and sugar has a really large affinity to water. So when too much sugar is added to a cake recipe, the sugar goes "I'm taking all this water. Thanks. Call me!"
There's other things we can look at but these are the things I'd focus on first. I also have a Classic White Cake recipe you could scale up to your size preference of you'd like another option. Good luck!
That sounds frustrating! After going over your recipe I noticed that the inclusion of silken tofu and cake flour might be the issue. Many bakers believe that cakes need to use egg replacers but it turns out that as long as you're using all-purpose flour, the extra gluten content (compared to cake flour) is enough to work as a structure builder and facilitate the trapping or rising gas bubbles to help leavening.
Tofu is sometimes added to vegan baked goods where a dense hybrid between a cake and a cookie is desired, such as in cakey brownies. The combination of cake flour and tofu means that the gas produced by the baking powder and the steam produced by baking won't get trapped and result in leavening, leaving you with a brick.
If you're unable to find another cake recipe and you'd like to experiment with your existing recipe I would do the following:
1)
Lose the tofu and swap out the cake flour with all-purpose flour. To return the cake batter to cake batter consistency, add water or non-dairy milk if necessary.
2)
Keep an eye on the sugar. If the sugar level is too high in a cake recipe, your cake will never be able to rise and keep the rise without crashing. This is because extra sugar interferes with gluten's ability to bind together and create structure. Gluten requires water to bind and sugar has a really large affinity to water. So when too much sugar is added to a cake recipe, the sugar goes "I'm taking all this water. Thanks. Call me!"
There's other things we can look at but these are the things I'd focus on first. I also have a Classic White Cake recipe you could scale up to your size preference of you'd like another option. Good luck!
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