If The Bottoms Of Your Cakes Come Out Dense, Check These 2 Things

While part of cake baking is learning how to follow instructions precisely and in order, another part of it is also learning to bake by feel. Once you start to see visual indicators that your recipe might not be coming out right, you can take steps to correct your bake — or learn what to do better next time. 

For example, if the bottoms of your cakes are coming out dense and claggy while the tops are perfectly moist, it could be a sign of uneven baking and heating. If you're not already preheating your oven, be sure to do so, as this has been known to cause issues with a cake's consistency. You may also have an oven temperature calibration issue on your hands. While it would be easy to assume that the temperature that you preheat and set your oven to is what the temperature actually is, there is some potential variability here. It's better to grab an oven thermometer to check and make sure you're baking at the correct temperature that your recipe calls for. You can also try to rotate your pan in the oven as it bakes, as this will counteract some of the oven's natural hot spots and ensure that your cake bakes evenly. 

Another potential cause of uneven baking is using a suboptimal baking pan. Aluminum is a trusted pan material because it conducts heat well. In comparison, glass takes longer to heat up, so it may not be able to effectively cook the bottom of your cake at the same rate as the top. If you're baking with a glass pan, try switching to aluminum and seeing if your bake is more consistent. 

If you notice that there is denseness in other parts of your cake, it may signal some issues with your baking technique. For one, if you cream together your butter, eggs, and sugar at too high of a speed, you will run the risk of over-creaming the batter, in turn yielding sporadic pockets of denseness in the center of the batter. Instead, only cream the butter enough so that the sugar and the eggs are mixed into it, and stick to a low speed on a stand mixer or with your electric beater. 

You may also have some issues with gluten in your cake. While mixing your batter once the flour is added is an important part of developing the proper cake structure, overdeveloping the gluten in the flour may cause the cake to sink once it comes out of the oven. If you want to avoid a stodgy cake, be sure to mix your flour into the cake by hand, as you will have better control over how much you're stirring it. You should also only mix the flour in enough so that it's well-incorporated and there are no pockets of dry ingredients remaining — but not any more than that.