1,550 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

Baking a cake at the right time

When you make a cake, which most likely contains butter, a cake for example, chances are that as soon as the batter is finished, you put it in the pan and bake it immediately.

Classic, everyone does it like that, and then if, on top of that, you have a few kids around you who are getting impatient, and almost want it to be cooked before going in the oven, when they haven't eaten half of the raw dough before, the pressure is even stronger!

21 K 4.5/5 (24 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Baking Cake Cooking Advice Butter Cold

Last modified on: April 18^th 2020

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

Baking a cake at the right time

gâteau pâte crue

So baking right after you finish kneading your dough is quite classic, but actually it's not a very good thing for two reasons:

1) The butter is often very soft, especially if the kneading was a bit long and heated the dough, which becomes very soft, and if there are additions in it (raisins for example) they will go to the bottom of the pan more easily. How to correct this? Put the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

2) The gluten contained in the flour (if there is any in your recipe) under the effect of kneading has started to structure itself and "stretches" the dough making it elastic, which is not interesting for a cake because it hinders the rising during baking. How to correct this? Let the dough rest for at least 20-30 minutes.

You will have understood, no need to rush: Knead your dough, put the bowl or the mixer bowl in the fridge for 30 minutes (this is often the opportunity to do a little washing up...) then only then put it in the oven.

Another option, once the dough is kneaded, put it in a mould, then put the mould in the fridge for 30 minutes. Bake then and only then.

gâteau pâte cuite

To sum up: Before putting a cake in the oven, it is always best to leave it in the fridge for about 30 minutes, as your cake will rise better when baked. In baking, the cold is (almost always) your friend.

Lasts posts

Butter vs. grease

We often read in a recipe where a pastry is put into a mould that, just before pouring, the mould should be buttered or greased. But what's the difference between these 2 terms?
December 1^st 20252,0905

Getting out of the fridge early

Very often when you're cooking, you need to take food or preparations out of the fridge, to use them in the recipe in progress. There's nothing tricky about this: you just take them out of the fridge and use them, usually immediately, in the recipe. But is this really a good method?
November 24^th 20251,4325

Who's making the croissants?

When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...
November 23^th 20251,315

Oven height

When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.
October 8^th 20254,0295

The importance of sieving

In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?
September 3^rd 20258,4133

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

Half milk, half cream

In a multitude of recipes, savoury or sweet, milk is used as the main ingredient, or at least as the main liquid ingredient. Milk is used instead of water, for example, because milk contains a proportion of fat, which adds roundness and softness to the recipe. This mellowness is very pleasant on...
February 27^th 20249,6855

Should I believe my oven?

Can you really trust your oven? This is an important question as we are always tempted to take the temperature indicated as gospel truth and, unfortunately, this is rarely very precise. .
July 4^th 201133 K4.6

Fruits which can ruin your jelly

There are many ways of making a fruit mousse, but one of the simplest is to prepare a fruit jelly (basically a fresh fruit coulis with gelatine) and then mix this jelly before it sets completely with whipped cream. The result is perfect for filling a charlotte, for example. But do beware;...
March 6^th 201379 K4.0

The 3 kinds of meringue

Meringue – what could be simpler? Just beaten egg whites with sugar added. This makes a fairly stiff mixture which can then be cooked in a cool oven to create those lovely, light confections. But in the world of professional patisserie, meringue comes in three different kinds. Even if the...
June 14^th 201365 K4.5

Candied fruits: don't get ripped off

Do you like candied fruit? You might like to nibble a handful or add it to a recipe, like a classic fruit cake or delicious Italian specialities like panettone or sicilian epiphany pie.
June 21^th 201769 K 24.2