Baking Hacks: 6 tips to avoid a dry, crumbly cake

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There’s nothing worse than spending hours in the kitchen mixing the perfect batter, only for your baking project to come out as a dry disappointment.

Either you’ve left your cake in longer than you should have or you tried to save a few Rands by skimping on the butter and choosing margarine instead. We have 6 baking hacks that will ensure you have a soft, spongy cake every time you get baking.

Baking time
1. Always preheat your oven. Never put your cake in an oven you’ve just switched on, this will result in a few baking flops.

2. The oven should be at the correct temperature that the recipe calls for and always stick to the baking time instructed. You do not want to over bake your cake.

Storage
3. Allow your cake to cool completely and wrap the cake in cling wrap or foil. Store the cake in an airtight container to prevent any air from drying your cake out.

Ingredients
4. To create a good quality cake, you need good quality ingredients. Never substitute butter for margarine. The fat content in butter is much higher which results in a moist cake.

5. When measuring flour, level your measuring cup with a knife and avoiding packing the flour down into the measuring cup as this will result in more flour than what’s needed and thus, yield a dry cake.

Brush your cake with liquid
6. Lightly brushing your cake with a flavoured liqueur, coffee or a simple syrup made of sugar and water can moisten the layers of your cake and add some extra flavour.