Sinking fruit is a baker's nightmare but it does not have to be. Here are some professional baking tips to make sure fruit gets evenly suspended in cake layers.
Cakes baked with fresh fruit are usually the most delicate. You have to be able to create a cake with fruit dispersed evenly throughout the batter.
Unfortunately for many people, achieving the perfect dispersion is difficult. Many times what is achieved is a “soggy bottom,” — a layer of sunken baked fruit only welcome in an upside-down cake.
Keep reading to learn more about how you can avoid sinking fruits and soggy bottoms.
To avoid this baking mistake follow these three easy tips suggested by Deb Wise, a professional baker and cookbook author with decades of baking experience.
Get Rid of Excess Moisture
The first step is to blot away any excess liquid with paper towels. One reason for this is that additional moisture can offset the chemical balance of your cake batter which is to be very specifically calculated to produce a delicate result. Another reason is that getting rid of extra juice reduces discoloration in your batter
Give It A Coat
If you have thin batter, added fruit needs support to remain suspended without which it will sink to the bottom. With any recipe, first consider the thickness of your cake batter and how heavy, or wet, the added fruit will be. You can create this support by tossing the blotted fruit in a thin layer of flour or cornstarch.
“Use a sieve to gently toss fruit in flour or cornstarch,” says Wise. “Using a sieve will help prevent over-coating the fruit, which can produce a gooey, or pasty, bite of fruit. It only takes a few tablespoons of flour to adequately coat fruit.”
The Fruit Should Go In Last
Wise advises that you add fruit to your batter or dough by gently stirring in the fruit as the last ingredient. This will prevent discoloration in your batter and give you the best chance at having the fruit suspended.
Conclusion
The three steps outlined above are simple but they will make a large difference to the finished product. They can also be applied to baked goods with any kind of heavy or moisture-laden fruit involved.
