Photo: noricum / Flickr

To tell if a cake is ready and to avoid over baking it, check to see if it is ready at the suggested time ‑ the cake should be a golden brown. If it is pale and uncooked then give it a further ten minutes before you test it again. When the cake looks firm and golden brown, gently touch the centre – if it is firm then test it with a skewer before removing it from the oven.

Testing for readiness with a skewer

To test a cake made with butter, push a fine metal or wooden skewer into the middle of the cake so that it touches the bottom of the tin – avoid pushing it through cracks. When you remove it, there shouldn’t be any cake mixture on it. If there is, bake the cake for a further 10 minutes or so.

When the cake is cooked the skewer will come out looking clean and feeling clean – but if the cake has come away from the sides of the tin it has probably been over cooked.

Turning a butter cake out of a pan

Don’t turn out a cake too quickly because it may break ‑ allow it to cool for about 10 minutes in its tin before you remove it. Don’t allow the cake to cool completely if it is an ordinary butter cake as it will become sticky.

To remove a cake from its tin, gently shake the cake until it frees itself a little from the tin. Use a palette knife to loosen the cake from the sides. Place the cake between two wire racks and turn the cake upside down. Lift the top rack off and lift the cake tin up and away.

A very small cake can be removed from the tin by shaking it and turning it upside down on a wire rack – if the tin was well greased, the cake should remain intact on the wire rack.

If a cake sinks in the middle after it has been removed from the oven then it is possible that it was not cooked properly but then, as noted above, if a cake comes away from the sides during baking, it’s likely to have been cooked too long.

How to keep a cake

A cake made with butter will keep for three days or so in an airtight container at room temperature. Place the cake in the fridge if the weather is humid or wet or if the topping is made with butter.

Butter cakes can be frozen for up to three months as long as the container is well sealed and close to the size of the actual cake. Butter-based frosting freezes better than glace icing ‑ but then iced cakes don’t look as good as they did before they were frozen. Perhaps you could consider preparing the icing for your cake once it has defrosted.

Tags: baking, recipe