The correct sponge cake should be tall and airy. But it doesn’t always turn out that way and not for everyone. But sponge cakes are great cakes, pastries and cookies.

Biscuit dough

A lot depends on the test. For biscuit dough you need six medium-sized eggs, 130 g of flour, 210 g of sugar and vanillin (or 10 grams of vanilla sugar). All six eggs should have the yolk separated from the white. Tip: Refrigerate the eggs and they will whip faster. Neither soda nor baking powder is added to the biscuit dough. But if you don't rely on your whipping abilities, add a little baking powder - at least it won't be as noticeable in the finished product.

Add vanillin or vanilla sugar, 105 g of regular sugar to the yolks and grind the resulting mass with a fork. A whisk will also work. The mass should turn white and increase several times in volume. Therefore, you should beat quite intensively.

Biscuit flour should be enriched with oxygen. To do this, it is sifted through a sieve several times. If you want a chocolate sponge cake, add three to four tablespoons of cocoa powder to the flour.

The whites, separated from the yolks, are beaten in another bowl, clean and completely dry. To do this, it is better to take a submersible mixer and start beating at the lowest speed. As soon as foam appears, increase the mixer speed to maximum. After some time, the whites begin to thicken. Then, without stopping whipping, add the remaining sugar to the whites and beat the mixture until strong foam. Carefully add a third of the whipped whites to the beaten yolks and gently mix with a wide spatula until smooth.

Sift the flour onto the surface of the resulting mixture, mix, and then transfer everything into a bowl with the beaten egg whites. And, of course, mix everything carefully again. Pour the resulting dough into the mold.

Utensils for baking biscuits

You can bake a biscuit in any form you like. If you need a sponge cake for a cake, it is best to take a split tin mold with a diameter of about 23-24 cm. The bottom of the mold is greased with butter and lightly sprinkled with flour or semolina. You can line the bottom with baking parchment paper.

But the walls of the mold should not be greased. After all, the biscuit will have to rise. Slippery walls will not allow the dough to rise - it will simply slide down. When the sponge cake is baked, run a knife around the perimeter, carefully separating it from the walls. If you are afraid that the sponge cake will stick to the ungreased sides of the pan, it is better to also cover them with parchment paper.

Baking process

The oven should be turned on before you start whisking and stirring. For good baking of the biscuit, 180°C will be quite enough. The oven must be preheated in advance, because biscuit dough is not pie dough and cannot be left standing. Bake the biscuit for about half an hour. No matter how much you would like to look at your sponge cake while baking, opening the oven is strictly prohibited. Otherwise, the flow of cold air will simply cause the delicate sponge cake to fall off, and the result will be a thin, sweet pancake, not a sponge cake. If you want to take a peek, look through the glass with the backlight on. The finished sponge cake springs under your fingers, and there is no sticky unbaked dough left on a toothpick inserted into the sponge cake. Tip: Place the cake on the center shelf. Otherwise, there is a possibility that a biscuit placed high will crack on top, and a biscuit placed too low will burn before it has time to bake.

Cutting the biscuit is very convenient with a strong thick thread. And the cakes should be soaked after the sponge cake has cooled and stood for a while, that is, about 5 hours after the sponge cake has been baked.

A celebration is coming up, a three-tiered cream giant is in the plans, and you want to conquer all the guests with the talent of an excellent pastry chef? Then you especially need to know why the sponge cake does not bake or falls after baking, as well as at what temperature it is baked and for how long. You can get all the necessary information regarding the insidiousness of the biscuit from this post, and if you use it, success will await you.

All women have an incredible sweet tooth. Sometimes even such persistent extra pounds cannot overcome the craving for confectionery products. And in a fit of true love, many housewives try to conjure some tasty little thing for tea in the kitchen.

The “trifle” can be three-tiered cakes, rolls stuffed with cream, the most delicate cupcakes, in general, something that is based on this incredibly tasty, but no less capricious – sponge cake.

However, this “Olympus” is not so easy to conquer, and often the ardor of cooks fades away at the sight of a failed masterpiece. So much work, and everything is down the drain. It is not surprising that the activity of the pastry chef, which began so spontaneously, is supported by a lot of pressing questions: “Why is the sponge cake raw inside, how many minutes does it need to be baked, at what temperature, or why does it settle?” and others, others...

However, it is worth sorting everything out in order.

Question No. 1: Why do they add starch to biscuits?

Often in recipe descriptions you can see that starchy powder is added to the dough along with the main components. In this regard, a reasonable question arises: why is there starch in a biscuit?

We should probably start with the fact that this component, depending on the plant from which it is extracted, is presented in a fairly wide range, namely, corn, soy, cassava, rice and other types of starches are used in cooking. In confectionery, they often resort to potato and wheat.

The starch in the biscuit is designed to eliminate excess moisture, which allows the product to turn out airy and tender. If, when kneading the dough, 30% of the flour is replaced with wheat starch, then you will notice that the volume of the cakes increases during baking, their structure becomes lighter and grainier, and the cake or roll comes out incredibly soft.

However, it is worth remembering that if you use potato powder, then it should be dissolved in dairy or fermented milk products, and also pay special attention to vanilla or any other flavoring, since starch from potatoes helps to suppress the taste of the finished product.

Question No. 2: How to make a fluffy sponge cake?

You've probably noted more than once that store-bought cakes have such thick layers that, willy-nilly, you feel a twinge of envy and try to figure out how to achieve this in your home-baked goods? It should be noted that this is not one or two rules, but a whole set of measures aimed at achieving excellent results.

Question No. 3: Why does the sponge cake fall down or not rise at all?

Many housewives have had to deal with the problem that when baking a sponge cake does not rise, and if it does rise, it always falls down afterwards. And it becomes so offensive, because we try to follow all the subtleties and rules, but apparently we are missing something. And this is exactly so, there are several reasons for this “pigish” behavior of the cakes.

The temperature regime is extremely important for baking such a confectionery product, so even the slightest violation of this rule entails negative consequences. An old oven can leak air, thereby disturbing the temperature; this includes regularly opening the oven door in the midst of the process. In addition, a malfunction of the oven can lead to uneven heat distribution and the cake may end up lopsided. And this is just one of the factors why the biscuit settles after baking. Violation of the cooking technique can also have a detrimental effect on the quality of the pastry chef. Perhaps during the process of kneading the dough, the proportions were not met, or the products were overly cooled, the whites were poorly beaten, a bad baking powder was used, and so on. Careless handling of the dough is another reason why the sponge cake shrinks. For example, if you hit or shake a mold with a mass poured into it, then, alas and ah, you should not even dream of a fluffy cake. Also, you should not hit the bottom of the baking sheet when removing the biscuit, because it is so delicate. Removing the baked goods early usually results in a nice, smooth sponge cake that looks like a bowl. Make sure the dough bakes evenly. After preparing the dough, you have absolutely no time to chat with your girlfriend or take a break with a Kit-Kat; you need to immediately put everything in the mold and sing off into the hot oven.

For the multicooker owner

Owners of multicookers, for example, often boast about their huge biscuits, but among them there are “losers” who, instead of a plump sweet bun, get a flat pancake.

The rules for this unit are basically similar to a conventional oven: set the temperature and time settings correctly, do not open the lid during baking, but there is one point that is quite tricky. Some people try to create an incredibly tall monster, such that when raised, it closes the multicooker valve and spoils all the circulation of warm air.

Well, dear ladies, don’t be lazy, well, better make two mediocre and successful cakes, then happiness will smile on you.

Question No. 4: Why is the sponge cake not baked in the middle and how to check its readiness?

Many newly minted “confectioners” are wondering how to determine whether the baked goods are ready, whether they are baked? There are a couple of ways to find out.

You can check the readiness of the cake by piercing it in the center with a wooden stick. If, after removing our “dosimeter” from the baked goods, it is dry at the end, then hurray, comrades, the shortbread was a great success, because otherwise the piece of wood will be sticky, with dough residues.

Another factor that signals the readiness of a sponge cake is its appearance; if you find that the baked goods have somewhat shrunk in the mold, that is, moved away from the walls, then this can be regarded as the readiness of the product.

However, such bummers often happen that on the outside the shortbread looks amazing, but on the inside it is soft, floppy and clearly unprepared. So what to do if the biscuit is not baked?

Initially, you need to determine why exactly such nonsense happened.

Big dose of sugar

Often, a half-baked cake can be the result of a technology error in kneading the dough. If, in the hope of making the future cake even sweeter, a naive housewife put twice as much sugar in it, then you shouldn’t expect a perfect biscuit. The same goes for flour, if you put in less it’s bad, if you put in more it’s the same. It’s worth remembering once and for all that biscuit is not something to joke about and neglecting proportions is certain “death” for the future confectionery product.

Temperature

The second and most common mistake is a broken biscuit baking mode, that is, the temperature and time were not selected correctly. Either you overheated the oven and the dough simply baked too quickly around the edges without ever reaching the center. Or, on the contrary, the degrees in the oven are not enough and the time that you have measured for baking is simply not enough.

How to finish baking a biscuit

But how can we save such a “miracle” and bake it until it’s completely ready? First, check the temperature in the stove, if it is high, reduce it, if it is low, increase it. Secondly, so that the crust, which is already sufficiently fried on top, does not burn, it should be covered with foil and left in the oven to finish baking, periodically poking it with a stick to check. That, in principle, is all science is.

Question No. 5: How long does it take to bake a biscuit?

Many recipes for sponge cakes specify a baking time of 30-40 minutes on average, but this does not mean that any cakes are baked for that long.

Of course, its taste parameters and quality characteristics depend on how long the biscuit is prepared. After all, if you overexpose the product in the oven, it will become dry, dense and tasteless, and if, on the contrary, you underexpose it, then there is a risk of getting a sticky and gloopy mass instead of a tasty and tender crumpet.

Naturally, the baking time depends on the temperature of exposure, as well as on what kind of cake you need, whether it is for a cake or for a roll, that is, the thickness of the dough is of main importance.

For rolls, the time mode varies within 10-15 minutes. For cakes, from 25 minutes to 1 hour.

Question No. 6: At what temperature do you bake the sponge cake?

Preparing a biscuit is, of course, a tricky business, in which every nuance can affect the appearance and taste of the product. Therefore, everything needs to be taken into account, even the choice of temperature for a certain type of dough.

For a butter sponge cake, the baking temperature should not exceed 180 o C. The simplest cake should be baked in a well-heated oven at 200-220 o C.

Place the pan with the dough in the oven only after making sure that it is warm enough, otherwise you will have to re-read question No. 3.

In addition, you should not leave the product in the oven after cooking, so as not to dry out. This rule does not apply to a multicooker. When working with this device, on the contrary, after finishing baking, the cake should be left inside for 10 minutes, this way you can avoid the rapid fall of the sponge cake.

Question No. 7: Why does the biscuit crack and rise up in a slide?

And what kind of dirty tricks does the biscuit come up with to irritate the housewives. It doesn’t rise, it doesn’t fall, and it doesn’t bake, but in addition, it does absolutely terrible things - it swells up like a slide, bursts and pretends to be a volcano, spewing out liquid dough.

Heat

What could be the reason behind this character trait of this whimsical baked goods? Heat! This is the main point. If you have heated the oven to hellish flames, then the biscuit will behave inappropriately, the top will quickly bake, and inside the dough will simply boil and, under pressure, raise a mound, and in more advanced cases, it will burst and leak out.

Dear girls, remember, how long and at what temperature you bake the biscuit depends on the outcome of the entire culinary event.

Overdose of flour

However, this is not the only reason why baked goods can crack. It happens especially noticeably on cupcakes that cracks appear on top of the finished product. Everything can be explained by a banal excess of flour proportions in the recipe, or during baking you simply dried out the sponge cake.

Question No. 8: Why does the sponge cake turn out rubbery?

One of the most common mistakes in preparing biscuits is eggs, or rather, not beating them correctly. Firstly, the eggs should be very carefully divided into whites and yolks and beaten separately with sugar, and the dosage of sand should not be changed, but strictly followed the recipe. Yes, yes, biscuit is a capricious thing. If the whipped egg foam is not dense enough, then the shortbread will end up “rubbery”.

You should also mix all the ingredients as gently as possible so as not to precipitate the foam.

Question #9: Why does the biscuit smell like eggs?

And so it was a success, chic, lush and airy. But what is this?! The smell of eggs spoils all the hard work done. The biscuit recipe contains a large number of eggs; for some, this smell is not noticeable in the finished product, but some particularly sensitive individuals simply cannot bite off a tiny piece. In addition, eggs from domestic chickens make the smell even more expressive than store-bought goods. In addition, those shortcakes that contain soda also smell of egg.

What to do in such a situation? If soda can still be replaced with a more harmless baking powder, then giving up eggs is not an option at all. Then there is only one solution, masking the smell. This is why vanillin or various artificial food flavors are added to the dough.

Another way to overcome an unpleasant aroma is to soak the cakes in syrup or confectionery cognac, which will also give the cake or roll a unique rich taste.

Question No. 10:

The originality of the baking design makes it even more attractive to those with a sweet tooth. Making a dark or striped cake is not such a difficult task, you just need to add cocoa powder to half the cakes (mix it with flour while kneading the dough).

You can also often see orange, pink and other rainbow-colored biscuits, the coloring of which is achieved using food coloring added to the dough. Such products are incredibly colorful, interesting and children like them. However, are you ready to stuff a tasty treat with chemicals for the sake of momentary beauty?

Question No. 11:

Biscuit, compared to many other flour products, has a rather modest calorie content.

The “enemy” shortbread in the classic recipe, which uses sugar, eggs and flour, has 258 kcal per 100 g. Butter sponge cake has an energy value close to 300 kcal per 100 g. If you add cream, jam and other ointments that are so generously used to coat the confectionery, then you can safely, regardless of all diets, crunch the cake without a twinge of conscience. But why not, if 0.1 kg contains more than 400 kcal, then what difference does it make, how much you eat, you still won’t become thinner.

Having measured how much time it takes to bake a sponge cake and the amount of nerves spent on it, you can wonder whether it’s worth bothering with it at all. However, having mastered the skills of cooking this seemingly simple, but terribly capricious confectionery product, you will certainly not experience problems with others.

The most important tip for preparing something delicious, not just baking, is to be in a good mood! Cook with joy, anticipating the pleasant surprise of your family; Imagine how delicious the pie will be, how nice it will be to drink tea with homemade cookies, and then everything will work out! If you are making dough, and there are only gloomy thoughts in your head, or, even worse, you are quarreling with someone, then it is unlikely that it will turn out tasty, tested by many! The dough only loves a good mood, that’s how capricious it is.

How to bake in the oven: basic principles

In stores, pay attention to the rack with baking products; now they sell a lot of different toppings for pies and cakes, decorations, etc.

An irreplaceable thing is baking powder; there is no need to extinguish the baking soda, as is suggested in many recipes.

By the way, slaked soda is soda that has been dripped with vinegar. Take the baking soda indicated in the recipe, for example, 1 teaspoon, and add a few drops of vinegar directly into the spoon. The soda will hiss and rise into white foam, then settle. This will be slaked soda, pour it into the dough.

In addition, you can extinguish soda by putting it in sour cream or kefir, if the recipe calls for their use. It is imperative to extinguish the soda, otherwise the dough product will acquire a disgusting taste, and all your work will go down the drain because of such a trifle.

We have prepared a lot of tips for you on how to bake properly at home. Tips that we hope will help you please your loved ones.

• The tightly kneaded dough sticks to your hands, but can be rolled out well with a bottle of cold water.
• To prevent the yeast dough from sticking to your hands, rub them with vegetable oil.
• The cake can be easily removed from the mold if the mold is placed on a cloth moistened with cold water and then cooled.
• If you are going to add raisins to the dough... then after you wash it, dry it thoroughly, otherwise voids will form around it during baking.
• The flour must be sifted through a sieve, this way it is saturated with oxygen. Yeast dough is especially good from this flour.
• You can roll out the thin dough with a rolling pin wrapped in a clean rag, but if the dough is too raw, then roll it out directly through a sheet of parchment.
• Butter will not darken when frying if the frying pan is first greased with a small amount of vegetable oil.
• Egg yolks can be preserved by placing them in a jar of water and placing the jar in the refrigerator.
• If you need protein, you can remove it from the egg by piercing it with a thick needle on both sides. The yolk will remain in the shell.
• Use a paper funnel to separate the white from the yolk.
• If sunflower or olive oil becomes cloudy and has an unpleasant odor, you need to add a spoonful of table salt per liter. After a few days, the settled oil can be drained.
• In order for the cakes to come out of the mold well and easily, it needs to be greased with cold butter and sprinkled with flour.
• A crumbly cake is easy to cut by dipping a knife into boiling water for a minute.
• Bread does not go stale for a long time if you put a piece of raw potato in the bread bin.
• To prevent the dough from burning, you need to place a frying pan with water under the baking sheet or put an asbestos sheet.
• The rolled out dough can be easily transferred to a baking sheet by rolling it onto a rolling pin and unrolling it onto the baking sheet.
• Walnuts for cakes and pastries will acquire a pleasant taste if they are lightly heated before cooking.
• To prevent walnuts from going rancid, they should be stored in a cool, dry place.
• To prevent the cottage cheese pie from settling after baking, you need to carefully remove it from the oven and cut it 2 cm deep around the perimeter of the mold.
• If the cottage cheese turns out to be raw, you can dry it by wrapping it in gauze and hanging it or placing it under a weight.
• It is better to store rye and wheat bread separately; they will not go stale longer.
• Plastic bags for bread should be washed occasionally with warm water and dried well.
• Puff pastry should be baked at a temperature of 210-231 C. It is more difficult to bake at a low temperature. The egg white beats well if it is fresh and chilled. This is best done in a cool place.

• Yolks and sugar are easier to mash when slightly warmed.
• You can add ghee to the butter for fried pies (300 g of ghee per 1 kg of butter), then they will turn out more flavorful.
• Before use, it is better to dilute soda with water, or mix thoroughly with flour.
• The casserole trays must not only be greased, but also sprinkled with breadcrumbs so that it does not stick to them.
• Products made from unleavened dough will be crumbly if you add a spoonful of cognac to the dough.
• Frosting for cakes and cookies can be colored red with beet juice, and orange with orange juice.
• A good glaze can be made by melting chocolate and mint candies and adding a couple of spoons of water or milk.
• The apples in the pie will cook faster if you put a pot of hot water in the oven.
• Peeled apples and pears for the filling will retain their color if they are wrapped in a napkin soaked in vinegar before cooking.
• When cooking, yeast should not come into contact with salt or fats, otherwise they will lose their leavening ability.
• You can grind yolks and whites only in enamel, porcelain, earthenware or clay dishes.
• You can whip egg whites much faster if you keep them in the cold before doing so.
• The more fat and less liquid in the dough, the more crumbly the product turns out.
• Shortbread dough can be stored in the refrigerator at 10-12 C and taken as needed.
• When preparing shortcrust pastry, flour must be mixed with other products for no longer than 2-3 minutes, otherwise the product made from such dough will become rough.
• There should be no draft in the room where the dough is prepared, as this will result in a rough crust on the products.
• Over-salted dough can be corrected by kneading a new portion without salt, and then mixing them thoroughly.
• Salt must be placed in the dough carefully; Over-salted dough does not ferment well, and products made from it turn out pale.
• An excess of soda in the dough gives the products a darkish color, an unpleasant color and taste; if there is a deficiency, it does not loosen well.
• You can put a little soda in the flour for gingerbread and dough, and add a little vinegar or citric acid to the water for the dough.
• You can determine the readiness of the dough without removing it from the oven by inserting a wooden stick into it. If there is dough on it, then the product is not ready yet.
• If there is little sugar in the dough, the product turns out pale. If there is too much sugar, the dough rises less and the middle remains unbaked.
• When baking with choux pastry, only lightly grease it, otherwise cracks will appear on the underside.
• Dough products are first greased with butter and then sprinkled with sugar, otherwise the sugar will quickly dissolve and be absorbed into the butter.
• For use, cardamom must be peeled from the white shell and then crushed with sugar.
• The dough rolls out better if you cover it with parchment or oiled paper.
• Baking dough will not burn in the oven if you pour salt into the pan under the dough.
• The dough is tightly kneaded and sticks to your hands, but can be rolled out well with a bottle filled with cold water.

• The surface of the table on which the dough is rolled out can be lightly greased with vegetable oil. Then the dough will not stick.
• Salt should not be added to dough mixed with margarine.
• If the dough mixed with yeast is not suitable, then it needs to be heated to 30-35 C. If this does not help, then you need to add fresh yeast.
• Before using, cinnamon should be dried a little on the stove and then crushed with sugar.
• Yeast will not lose its properties for several weeks if it is mixed with flour, rubbed, dried and placed in a glass.
• Yeast should be stored at a temperature no higher than 3-4 C.
• If you add a spoonful of cognac to the unleavened dough, the products made from it will be crumbly and airy.
• If you need to add soda to the finished dough, then it should be diluted with water and added to the dough.
• Thinly rolled out dough can be transferred if you sprinkle it with flour and roll it onto a rolling pin.
• Yeast dough will not stick to your hands if you rub a little vegetable oil into your hands.
• If the homemade cookies are a little burnt, let them cool, then rub them with a fine grater several times and sprinkle sugar on top.
• You need to brush the dough product with egg 5-10 minutes before the end of baking. This should be done carefully so as not to wrinkle the product.
• All products for preparing yeast dough should be at room temperature.

Delicate, airy, aromatic, fluffy and light - a sponge cake... Not everyone and not always manages to prepare the right sponge cake. And even experienced housewives have failures. But only an experienced housewife knows all the nuances of preparing this dough, as well as how to fix a failed sponge cake.

To make a sponge cake you need only 3 products: eggs, sugar and flour. Sometimes you can add citric acid if the eggs are not beating well.

We will not dwell in detail on the preparation of biscuit dough, since recipes are a dime a dozen. Let's look at just a few nuances that are worth paying attention to, since without them you won't get a fluffy sponge cake. So, if the inside of the sponge cake is raw, sagged in the oven or not completely baked - what to do and how to fix it?

1. The quality of a whipped sponge cake depends, first of all, on the quality of the eggs: freshness, size (the larger the better), and careful separation of the whites from the yolks.
2. Dishes and all utensils used in cooking must be absolutely dry and clean. Therefore, before whipping the mass, it is necessary to wash the dishes themselves, whisks, spoons and mixer attachments with warm water and wipe dry.
3. When adding flour, the mixer can precipitate all the whipped foam, so you need to stir the mass while adding flour with a spoon. You need to mix the whipped whites and flour carefully, but quickly, not in a circular motion, but from top to bottom, so that air bubbles remain inside the dough, which will not allow it to settle.
4. If the recipe contains other bulk ingredients other than the three indicated (for example, starch, vanillin or cocoa), then these components must first be mixed with flour and then added to the whipped egg whites. But you need to add zest, candied fruits or poppy seeds to the dough after adding flour.
5. After preparing the dough, it must be immediately poured into the mold, otherwise there can be no talk of any splendor.
6. The baking dish also needs to be greased correctly. If you plan to make the layer of biscuit thin, for example, for rolls, then the bottom and walls about 1 cm high are greased with soft butter. If the dough is planned without a crust, then you must first line the mold with baking paper and then grease the bottom with butter. If the biscuit dough contains baking powder, then you need to grease the entire mold - from the bottom and walls to the top, and then sprinkle with flour.
7. You need to place the pan at the middle height of the oven. If the top of the dough burns, you should cover the pan with paper soaked in water. The crust on top can prevent moisture from evaporating and the crust will remain undercooked and soggy in the middle.
8. Correctly selected temperature is a guarantee of a good biscuit. There are recipes indicating different temperatures, however, the cake is best baked at a temperature of 180’C, and if it contains cocoa or chocolate, then at 170’C. Some housewives advise, after forming the crust and increasing the volume of the biscuit, to reduce the temperature to 160’C and bake until ready.
9. It is better not to open the oven during the baking process, otherwise the cake may settle (at least for the first 15 minutes for sure). If you still need to open it, then you need to do it very carefully and not for long. At the same time, biscuit dough does not like shaking, knocking and screaming.
10. To get a light sponge cake, you need to dry it on a wire rack for at least 4 hours, and before soaking it - all 8. Therefore, the cake can be baked in the evening, and you can make masterpieces out of it, soak it and prepare cakes in the morning.
11. It is better to cut the sponge cake with a fishing line or a very sharp knife.
12. The biscuit pan must not be removed from the oven for inspection during baking. The finished biscuit is only then cooled and removed from the mold.
13. To make the sponge cake easily removed from the mold, the bottom and walls can be lined with parchment.
14. The sponge cake must be removed from the mold when it has cooled, and pies made from yeast dough after baking are immediately laid out and cooled without a mold.
15. The sponge cake is ready when it becomes soft and easily pulls away from a wooden skewer.
16. The sponge cake will not fall off if, after baking, you turn it over onto a wire rack and let it cool without removing it from the pan.
17. If you add starch to the biscuit dough, it becomes more crumbly.

How to fix a spoiled biscuit?

Problems and their solutions during the cooking process

Problem #1 – Egg whites don’t whip well.

Why:
1. There may be yolk in them (you'll have to start over)
2. Or you added sugar too early (beat in a water bath)

Problem No. 2 - The biscuit is dense, the dough does not rise well in the oven

Why:
1. The ingredients may not be whipped well.
2. The finished dough was stirred for too long
3. Place the dough in a cold oven
4. The dough stood for a long time before baking.
5. Too much flour in the dough, flour was poured by eye

Problem #3 - The biscuit is not baked

Why:
1. Baking temperature is too high (with a crispy crust and raw inside)
2. Baking temperature is too low (the cake is low and light)

Problem 4 - The biscuit is difficult to remove from the mold

Why:
1. The mold was not sprinkled with flour, but only greased with oil.
2. The mold has an uneven surface, very old
3. There is too much sugar in the dough

One of the indicators of a skillful housewife is excellent baking. But even the most skilled chefs fail to produce even the most complex dishes. So many people complain that desserts don’t turn out well. In particular, they are interested in why the sponge cake settles after baking.

The main thing to understand is that baking powder is not a solution to the problem. Even the most expensive one or the one that always “works” in other recipes will not be able to prevent the sponge cake from settling. Also, its threefold increased amount will not help - this will completely ruin the dessert.

If you also have this problem, then you will be interested in a few assumptions that will help you understand what to do to prevent the biscuit from settling.

Reason 1. Poorly selected products

By and large, the recipe is the same everywhere. But not every housewife can choose really high-quality products.

What to do?

Carefully select the ingredients for the biscuit, namely:

• eggs must be fresh (in “stale” eggs the whites are quite thick);
• choose granulated sugar as fine as possible;
• flour is bought only of the first grade and sifted at least three times.

Therefore, do not chase discounts in supermarkets - often discounted products are of dubious quality. At the same time, you will not only not save, but also lose significantly when you see that the sponge cake you prepared is a donkey.

Reason 2. Poorly beaten eggs

This is one of the most common causes of biscuit settling. There are many technologies, but only one is correct.

What to do?

You need to beat the whites as thoroughly as possible. Moreover, this must be done not only in a circle, like clockwise, but also vertically. This way you will achieve fluffy protein that can “hold” the finished dough.

Reason 3. Incorrect oven temperature setting

Temperature directly affects cooking. The reaction of products to too high or low degrees will respond with a completely unsuccessful dessert.

What to do?

Know the cooking technology. When baking a biscuit, the following temperature is set: at the initial stage it is 60 degrees. You keep it like this for about 30 minutes. Then gradually increase to 180 degrees. At the end of the cooking time, turn off the oven and do not open it until the biscuit has cooled completely.

These tips are very simple, but very important. Following them will help you bake your perfect biscuit.

Reason 4. The dough was not baked

If the biscuit dough is not baked, then immediately after baking it shrinks and the situation cannot be corrected.

What to do?

Do not open the oven for the first 30 minutes of baking, and then start checking the cake every 5 minutes for doneness. If, after lightly pressing your finger in the middle of the biscuit, the depression is restored and no dents remain, then it is ready. If not, give it another 5 minutes and check again.

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Well, what could be easier than baking a simple sponge cake? Probably, many of you will not agree with me, because only an experienced housewife can prepare a fluffy sponge cake. And partly you will be right. There are many nuances and subtleties in preparing classic baked goods, which will be discussed in this article.

I baked my first “sponge cake” at the age of 12, and what I took out of the oven looked more like an omelette than the cake crust I had imagined. In those distant times there was no Internet, cooking shows and magazines with colorful step-by-step recipes. There was only my mother's notebook with a list of ingredients and a short description of the process. And then no one really knew how to cook it, not my mother’s friends, not my friends, and especially my grandmother, who is only my friend with yeast dough.

Recipe verified down to the gram and clear proportions

But over twenty years, I finally learned how to bake a real biscuit, thanks to a series of experiments and personal experience. And it is this recipe that I always give to my friends and relatives, and I will also pass it on to my still little daughter.

Friends, there will be a lot of text below, so please be patient, and I promise you that your first sponge cake will turn out fluffy, airy, and incredibly tasty. As you can see in the photo, the cake can be cut into three parts.

List of ingredients

• 5 eggs
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 pinch of salt

Additionally:

• vegetable oil for greasing the mold
• baking dish with a diameter of 28-26 cm.
• glass 250 ml.

Cooking instructions

Prepare two comfortable and deep bowls in which it will be convenient to beat with a mixer. Make sure that there are no drops of water in the bowl in which you will beat the whites; the bowl should not only be dry, but also fat-free. Even a drop of fat will spoil the biscuit. Therefore, make sure in advance that the bowl for proteins is dry and fat-free.

Now the most exciting part of the process: we need to separate the whites from the yolks. Carefully separate the whites from the yolks, and make sure that not even a small drop of yolk gets into the whites. As I wrote earlier, fat from the yolk, even in small quantities, will interfere with whipping the whites. If you do not have experience in separating yolks from whites, then it is best to do this over a separate plate. If you spoil one protein, the overall protein mass will not be affected.

Now add half the sugar to the yolks.

Beat the yolks with sugar with a mixer until the sugar is completely dissolved and set aside.

Cold proteins are the key to successful baking

One of the most important rules for preparing a sponge cake is that the whites must be cold, otherwise they simply won’t whip up. If you did not have time to cool the eggs in advance, then place the bowl with the separated whites in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, where they will quickly cool. Add a pinch of salt to the cooled whites.

Beat the egg whites and salt with a mixer at high speed into a fluffy foam. At this stage it already becomes clear whether the biscuit will turn out or not. If the whites are whipped into a beautiful foamy head, then everything is fine, we can move on. Gradually add the remaining sugar to the whipped whites and continue beating the whites until the sugar is completely dissolved.

No sudden movements!

Gradually add the whites to the beaten yolks with sugar. This must be done very carefully so that the biscuit mass does not shrink, at the lowest speed of the mixer, but it is better to stir clockwise with a spoon to be sure.

We do the same with flour, which needs to be sifted in advance. Add flour to the biscuit dough one tablespoon at a time, and mix gently at the lowest speed of the mixer, or with a spoon.

"French Shirt"

Next, let's prepare the biscuit pan. We don’t need surprises, so even a non-stick pan is greased with vegetable oil using a brush, or by hand, and sprinkled with flour. Excess flour needs to be shaken off. By the way, I only recently learned that this method of processing the mold before baking is called a “French shirt.”

Pour the biscuit dough into the mold and bake in a preheated oven.

How to bake in the oven

If you are cooking for the first time, you will probably ask me at what temperature to bake a sponge cake in the oven? I answer: in the case of biscuit dough, extremes are not needed, the golden mean is 170-180 degrees. Bake for 30-40 minutes. The grille position is in the middle. Do not forget that you cannot open the oven for the first 25 minutes, otherwise the biscuit will not rise.

Check the readiness of the baked goods with a wooden toothpick or skewer. If the toothpick is dry and the biscuit is browned on top, then the baking is ready. You cannot immediately remove the pan from the oven, because it may fall. Turn off the oven, open the door halfway, and leave until the oven cools.

Remove from the oven, remove from the pan and transfer to a plate. After cooling, the finished biscuit falls a little, and the surface wrinkles, but still remains fluffy and airy.

Well, that’s all friends, I hope I didn’t confuse you too much. As you can see, there is nothing complicated in preparing a classic sponge cake. The main thing is to follow all the above recommendations, and you will certainly succeed.

In what oven should I bake the biscuits? Both electric and gas ovens are suitable for baking. In an electric baking oven, turn on top and bottom heat without convection. The grille position is in the middle. For a gas oven, turn on only bottom heat, the position of the grill is also in the middle and without convection.

Which oven should I put the biscuits in? To get a guaranteed result - a perfect sponge cake, the form with the dough must be placed in a preheated oven. But more than once I put the pan with the dough in a cold oven, and the sponge cake rose perfectly. Therefore, if you are at a crossroads about putting a biscuit in a hot or cold oven, it is better to choose a hot one.

Why doesn't the sponge cake rise in the oven?

The oven seal is broken. This feature is typical for old Soviet ovens. Over time, the rubber seals dry out, allowing foreign air to enter the oven while the cake is baking. If you have a modern gas or electric oven, then there is nothing to worry about.

Do not open the oven with a biscuit for the first 25 minutes. The biscuit will settle in the oven if you open the oven door early. Set an alarm clock for yourself, or watch through the glass as the dough rises in the mold and the top browns.

Added too much flour. Flour should be added to the dough not by eye, but according to the recipe. There is a very simple proportion for a sponge cake: for 1 egg use 1 tablespoon of flour. In my recipe, this proportion is maintained: 5 tablespoons of flour are placed in a 250 gram glass. This proportion will be useful if you want, for example, to bake a sponge cake for 7 or 9 eggs. The same proportion applies to the sugar in the recipe.

Didn't sift the flour. If you are baking a biscuit for the first time, then you should not ignore this stage. Be sure to sift the flour to enrich the dough with oxygen, because classic baked goods are prepared without soda and baking powder, so oxygen comes in handy here.

Using domestic eggs. The yolks in homemade eggs are always higher in fat than in store-bought eggs, so for better results, I always bake with store-bought eggs.

Classic sponge cake recipe

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