Too much baking powder/baking soda?

[pancake]

Hey everyone,

I made such a horrible un-edible cake lately My first cake ever wasn't as bad & i've been doing so many cakes and they used to turn out real good. The only thing I played with was I added a little extra baking powder (mine was about to expire so I thought I'll give it a push!) and I added 1/4t Baking soda (not included in the recipe but just in case the baking powder was dead, I thought that would be a push too!!) and I ended up with the worst cake on earth
This is what happened :
It sarted rising beautifully, more than beautiful actually and was doing great-filled all the laof pan and made a beautiful dome shape ontop as it was rising..then..all of a sudden...it started de-flating all by itself (didn't open the oven door or anything) and it didn't deflate at the sides, but only at the center!! It started going down down down forming this deep grove at the center along the whole cake!!! Came out so dense and compressed after looking so perfect :? It was terrible!
Why did that happen you think????????

 

[Alix]

Too much stuff. I did this recently and if there is too much leavening your cake totally crashes and burns. Sorry to hear about your booboo.

 

[pancake]

Thanks Alix! So it is the leavening then :x I'm happy to know it's not the recipe!

 

[Alix]

Yep, Moonlight I would just use the required amount of baking powder and ditch the soda. It will likely be fine even if the powder is a little flat.

 

[jasonr]

That'll teach you to mess around with the recipe.

 

[Yakuta]

Hi Moonlight sorry to hear about the cake. It's true that cooking is an art while baking is a science.

Exact amounts are critical to baking (and believe me I have learned from my share of mistakes as well so you are not alone in this).

One rule for baking, try and keep a box of baking soda and baking powder (non expired kind handy) before you even think about taking on a baking project.

I normally toss out baking soda and baking powder right by their expiration date. I then replace them with fresh cans. Its not that expensive so it's alright to do that.

Also only use the quantity specified nothing more nothing else. More is not better and substitutions are not good. Baking soda and Baking powder each react differently during the baking process and one is not necessarily a substitute for another.

When I was new to the process I made inedible breads, cakes, cookies etc but practice along with trial and error makes it perfect and now after trials and tribulations I am getting closer to perfection in baking projects.

 

[pancake]

Thanks alot for all the comfort I'm so glad I'm not the only one ! I replaced my baking powder now & I can't wait to try it again.
Thanks you all are great help & releif!