It’s time to solve that cake problem once and for all! You know the one I’m talking about. It’s the dark crust on your layer cake that you carve away with a knife. It’s the chewy or dry texture that you’ve tried to overcome so many years now, but haven’t.
Stick out your tongue and say “ahhhhh”. Yes, I see a case of cake-envy. You’ve seen cakes in magazines, on television and even appearing in the local bakery and you want to know how YOUR cakes can be so high, fluffy and moist.
Whether you’re at home or in baking classes , study your ingredients firstto diagnose any cake problem. Every ingredient plays a specific role in the final outcome of your baked good. Some are tougheners, others tenderizers. Some ingredients add moisture, others dry your mix. Knowing the role each ingredient plays is the first step to curing your cake envy.
One of the 7 basic categories of cake ingredients are Leaveners. Chemical leavening usually means the addition of baking powder or baking soda, but can also refer to mechanical leavening where egg whites trap steam and rise your cake.
If you consistently have poor volume on your cake, AND you understand how baking soda reacts with moisture, heat and acids to release carbon dioxide, then you can cure the dense cake with more leavening agent or more acid to activate the chemical reaction.
Any cake problem can be solved with the background knowledge of the hows and whys in baking. Sugar in a cake formula acts as a tenderizer, shortening the gluten strands that are developed during mixing that could make your cake chewy.
However, sugar also aids in crust formation and browning. When your favorite cake always comes from the oven with a dark crust that you have to carve away with the bread knife, you should examine the amount of sugar in the formula to solve this issue.
The secret to diagnosing any cake problem is to look it like Dr. BakeGood does. He wants to know what is going on behind the scenes in any baking recipe. He’ll cure your ills with an understanding of the HOWs and WHYs behind baking, or empower you to cure yourself. 
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Hi Abida!
Cakes not rising could mean many things. Once you discover the secrets behind chemical leavening and the relationship of baking ingredients, you should be able to diagnose quite easily.
Cakes not rising can mean too little leavening agent, oven temperature too high, over mixing, too much liquid, or not enough flour. You'll have to re-check your formula and be sure you're mixing correctly to know exactly which one it is.
my cake never raise.whats the problem
Hi Shannon!
A split crust can be caused by a few things.
1) Too much leavening agent or too much acid in the formula to activate the leavening agent. Be sure of your baking powder or baking soda measurements. If you're measuring correctly, perhaps use half baking soda and half baking powder for the entire amount of leavening called for. If your spice cake has lemon juice, wine, or sour cream in the formula, these are acidic products that activate the leavening agent. Reduce the amount of these ingredients, or change from baking powder to baking soda.
2) Too much liquid in the formula can cause early evaporation before the structure of the cake sets. The escaping liquid blows the lid off your cake.
3) Most likely, the oven temperature is too low. In lower baking temperatures, the cake leavens before the structure sets, this gives split crust also.
If you go to http://www.BakingHowTo.com and register for the class, you'll get my Cake Faults Guide. This has many remedies to cure split cakes.
I just baked a spice cake and followed the recipe exact and every time my cake comes out it has a large crack down the middle of the cake. What is causing this to happen?
Hey Mark!
It seems to me that your oven temperature was too low. You got the leavening power you wanted from the leavening agent, but the proteins in your Lemon Mist Cake didn't set before the leavening was exhausted.
Try increasing the oven temperature so that the cake structure sets before full leavening takes place.
Was making a Lemon mist cake the other day and the layers started raising great then sunk in the middle at the end instead of puffing up. Used aluminum free baking powder and recipe had a couple of TBS of lemon juice added to it. Maybe I need to beat it longer? Don't want it tough though.