Traca's Ricotta Pound Cake is delicious, but both cupcakes and bread pan collapsed in middle.

M

marilynfl

Moderator
What did I do wrong that half the universe did right? After today's second batch collapsed (bread pan), I checked the baking powder and it's fine...fizzled immediately in hot water.

I followed directions carefully, used a nice dry ricotta (Sorrento whole milk) yet each of the cupcakes (batch makes 20) had a small indentation, while the bread pan had one big one.

Still delicious...I've already had two slices (made with vanilla + vanilla paste + lemon emulsion). I just won't be taking it whole to a dinner party tonight.

Hey, I might have stumbled on a great idea. Now it's all "mine! mine! mine!" screeched the seagulls.

Well...maybe Larry'll get some...

Did anyone else run into this problem? I baked it for the longer time and had no problem with it being undercooked.

 
marilyn, flip the bread pan one over and use the bottom for the top--nice and square and

goodlooking with a thin glaze or just powdered sugar. no one will know.

 
Luckily for me, I didn't see this until AFTER the dinner party! Great suggestion, Ang.

But now I've got breakfast for the next week.

 
Isn't sinking due usually to overbeating or oven temp issues??? Not a scientist Marilyn, sorry but

for the delicate cakes I think these are two issues that most people deal with.
I have made this cake 4 times in the last few weeks.
No additions or substitutions.
Mine also has not needed any additional baking time.
I also never rotate my pans because I was always "taught" not to open the oven door till the cake is set or it will fall in the middle.
The only problem I've had is not greasing the pan enough (or, letting it cool too long in the pan) and had one split in half. Of course, this was the one I was giving away to the dog breeder as we were going to pick out our puppy this weekend.
I rescued as much as I could - put it together like a puzzle, wrapped it tight with freeze-tite
(love, love, love that stuff from KingArthur)
wrapped in ribbon and gulped. (We didn't get first pick of our puppy anyways so now I don't feel as terrible!)
Also - since I was making this at 5 am, I took out my frozen butter the night before and left on counter - it was fairly soft in the AM, I threw it in the freezer for a few while I made coffee and only beat my batter for probably 30 seconds instead of 2 minutes, also cutting down subsequent beating times for all the rest of the ingredients.
My real test comes this summer when we go to Colorado for a few months. My husband has declared that I make this as least once a week for all of his fishing buddies..at 10,000 feet I'm sure you'll hear me screaming all the way in Florida!
Let us know of your fucture tweaks!

 
I love this cake, but have to admit that mine always sink the middle .

I am going yo try it again using a 6 cup bundt pan. Hopefully this will take care of the problem that I have with sinking in loaf pans. I have tried 3 different sizes of loaf pans (including the 9X5 as directed) and they all have a large indentation down the center. I'll let you know how the bundt pan works out.

 
I haven't made the cake yet, but have always had this problem with loaf pans.

Bundt cake pans seem to work better--perhaps the heat is distributed more evenly across the surface of the cake.

Although...does baking in a Bundt (or tube) pan make a cake less dense than baking in a loaf pan? Sounds like I need to do a test!

 
No, but each cupcake had a crispy ring around the top edges. Baked 30 minutes...

flipping it at 15 minutes. For this batch I used orange emulsion and orange zest. Then I whipped a jar of Dyslexic Bittersweet chocolate sauce with 4 Tbl of sweet butter and added some orange emulsion. Piped it over the cupcakes to hid the indentations. Made those for the library.

My bread pan didn't stick at all. But then I greased/floured it well.

 
Thanks Marianne...I can read the commentary, just not the recipe. So...here's what I did

I warmed the butter to blend it better with the sugar, so THAT'S WRONG.

My eggs were cold out of the frig, so THAT'S WRONG.

I may have whipped the eggs too long, so THAT'S WRONG.

I didn't hand-fold in the sifted cake flour; I let the KA mix is on low, so THAT'S a POSSIBILITY.

Okay, I think I may give this another shot.

 
I'd say to the bulk of the problem is with butter being too warm & cold eggs.

In trying it again, I'd go for room temp ingredients in eggs, butter, and ricotta. I beat the eggs enough to lighten them to pale yellow but definitely not "beat the dickens out of them."

Also, make sure your ricotta is drained or on the drier side. I use Precious brand with great success. I believe that's a national brand.

I mixed the dry with the wet with a hand mixer and had no problem. My hand mixer is very powerful so perhaps I'm developing a bit of gluten with that power.

But I'd say the biggest problem is with the butter. It needs to be room temp.

 
Marilyn, I sent Cindy Mushet from "Art & Soul of Baking" this thread...here's her response:

Hi Traca, My first thought when something sinks in the middle is too much leavening (yeah, weird, the bubbles in the batter expand too much, bump into each other and pop). The measuring spoons should be level at the top. Just looking at the formula, it looks like there's more leavener in here than needs to be, but the rule of 1 teaspoon baking powder per 1 cup flour can be bent for certain textural results.

If that's not the issue, then my next guess would be the flour. You need enough gluten to hold the cake up - think of gluten as the frame of a house. Protein content in the flour is directly responsible for the amount of gluten that can develop with mixing. Cake flour has the least amount of protein and bread flour has the most. I think the addition of ricotta is causing the problem - brands of ricotta vary in their moisture content, and the batter may be too wet in some cases. You may need a little extra flour to absorb that liquid and provide structure. Maybe increase the cake flour to 1-3/4 cups and see if that helps. Or, use a flour with more protein, such as unbleached all purpose flour, which is able to absorb more liquid than cake flour, and provide more structure as well. I'd start with 1-1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour to substitute for the 1-1/2 cups cake flour.

By the way, with pound cakes, the butter needs to be about 65 F. to 68 F. for best results with creaming. That's cool to the touch and flexible - you could bend it into a sculpture and it would hold its shape. If the butter is warmer than that, your results won't be as good, since warm butter can't hold all the air bubbles that form during the creaming process, which results in a heavy, under-risen cake. For the best rise in these dense cakes, they need to be filled with air bubbles. The baking powder helps the bubbles enlarge in the heat of the oven, which in turn makes the cake rise. Keep the butter on the cool side, then beat with the sugar for a full 5 to 6 minutes, or until it looks nearly white. And make sure any other ingredients you add are at cool room temperature (not warm), so they don't "seize" the butter - adding something cold to the mixture makes it contract quickly, which also collapse air bubbles.

Hope something here helps! I'm going to try the cake - it sounds delicious!

Take care,Cindy

 
wow, what great information. printed and put into my old Betty Crocker. thank her. thank you.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top