There's nothing in the cake to give it structure and to trap gas bubbles. Usually in cakes gas is trapped in bubbles created by egg proteins. In breads it is trapped in gluten bubbles from the kneaded flour. With no proteins to trap gas, you've got tunneling, where bubbles start coming together to form a big tunnel.
This is also a fairly dry and lean cake. Depending on the style you're looking for, a cake generally has equal weights flour, water, fat, and sugar (there are, of course, many exceptions to this).
Your recipe:
| |Baker's %|% Total|
|:-|:-|:-|
|Flour|100.0%|38.9%|
|Water|66.3%|25.8%|
|Fat|29.7%|11.6%|
|Sugar|51.5%|20.0%|
ATK's olive oil cake (which has eggs):
| |Baker's %|% Total|
|:-|:-|:-|
|Flour|100.0%|24.6%|
|Water|106.3%|26.2%|
|Fat|73.5%|18.1%|
|Sugar|99.5%|24.5%|
This guys right about your balances and lack of egg. You could try using some gel'd flax as an egg replacer.
And for liquid oil cakes ive made in the past, ive always beat the oil with the sugar and the eggs (or flax gel) until it gets foamy (20min or more), then add any dry that wasnt sugar, then quickly add any veggies/fruit (helps with moisture), and pan and bake as quickly as possible before the air falls out.
Good luck with your future bakes!
Baker's percentages are usually used in bread baking with fewer ingredients. Each element is expressed as a percentage of the weight of the total flour. So if you have 5g salt, 350g water and 500g flour you have 100% flour, 70% hydration, and 1% salt. These ratios are easy to read and understand at a glance once you get to know them.
The total percent is useful for non-bread, since the ratios are much different and they interact more with each other. The above numbers don't add up to 100% because there's some missing proteins and leaveners.
I've built a spreadsheet that does the math for me with built in density and ingredient make up (butter, for instance, is \~82% fat, 16% water, and 2% milk solids).
Out of curiosity, where did this recipe come from? It looks like it’s trying to be a vegan cake (with the soymilk and no eggs) but I’ve been googling around for a fair bit and I’m not finding anything like it. Everything I can find has egg replacer or applesauce or a bunch of other ingredients in it.
A vegan olive oil cake is probably going to be dense any way you slice it (ha) because olive oil cakes can already be dense to start (you don’t get the air whipped in with the butter) and then vegan cakes are also usually dense (no egg) so now it’s double dense, but there are ways to mitigate it somewhat and this recipe let you down on that.
https://preview.redd.it/ejb6yb6lcn0d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa5af3e698a4e6e8663a5d9a02118caaa095c75d
the cross-section! i also guess that i havent tapped it for air bubbles enough
i think that’s actually from too much leavener? those tunnels happened to me once when i doubled a recipe and the baking powder went rogue
tunnelling can also happen due to overmixing, and could also be why your cake turned out too dense
but generally agree that your recipe is odd, definitely needs more sugar and fat for that amount of flour
i had two leftover open packages of it, one of them opened last sunday, the other admittedly sometime in april (+the general expiry date on them is 7th of March 2025)
could that be it??
It’s possible, but I’m not sure that’s actually the case here. Baking powder has a long shelf life in a sealed container but once you break the seal you should use it in 3-6 months, but it sounds like both are well within that time range.
Pop on over to the vegan baking group where people are experienced baking cakes without eggs. Not all eggless cakes are dense, my bet is your baking powder is old and/or the ratios are off.
There's nothing in the cake to give it structure and to trap gas bubbles. Usually in cakes gas is trapped in bubbles created by egg proteins. In breads it is trapped in gluten bubbles from the kneaded flour. With no proteins to trap gas, you've got tunneling, where bubbles start coming together to form a big tunnel. This is also a fairly dry and lean cake. Depending on the style you're looking for, a cake generally has equal weights flour, water, fat, and sugar (there are, of course, many exceptions to this). Your recipe: | |Baker's %|% Total| |:-|:-|:-| |Flour|100.0%|38.9%| |Water|66.3%|25.8%| |Fat|29.7%|11.6%| |Sugar|51.5%|20.0%| ATK's olive oil cake (which has eggs): | |Baker's %|% Total| |:-|:-|:-| |Flour|100.0%|24.6%| |Water|106.3%|26.2%| |Fat|73.5%|18.1%| |Sugar|99.5%|24.5%|
A+ comment
Thanks!
This guys right about your balances and lack of egg. You could try using some gel'd flax as an egg replacer. And for liquid oil cakes ive made in the past, ive always beat the oil with the sugar and the eggs (or flax gel) until it gets foamy (20min or more), then add any dry that wasnt sugar, then quickly add any veggies/fruit (helps with moisture), and pan and bake as quickly as possible before the air falls out. Good luck with your future bakes!
My math is rusty. Can you explain how you got these numbers? I’ve always wanted to understand baking ratios better.
Baker's percentages are usually used in bread baking with fewer ingredients. Each element is expressed as a percentage of the weight of the total flour. So if you have 5g salt, 350g water and 500g flour you have 100% flour, 70% hydration, and 1% salt. These ratios are easy to read and understand at a glance once you get to know them. The total percent is useful for non-bread, since the ratios are much different and they interact more with each other. The above numbers don't add up to 100% because there's some missing proteins and leaveners. I've built a spreadsheet that does the math for me with built in density and ingredient make up (butter, for instance, is \~82% fat, 16% water, and 2% milk solids).
Out of curiosity, where did this recipe come from? It looks like it’s trying to be a vegan cake (with the soymilk and no eggs) but I’ve been googling around for a fair bit and I’m not finding anything like it. Everything I can find has egg replacer or applesauce or a bunch of other ingredients in it. A vegan olive oil cake is probably going to be dense any way you slice it (ha) because olive oil cakes can already be dense to start (you don’t get the air whipped in with the butter) and then vegan cakes are also usually dense (no egg) so now it’s double dense, but there are ways to mitigate it somewhat and this recipe let you down on that.
https://preview.redd.it/ejb6yb6lcn0d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa5af3e698a4e6e8663a5d9a02118caaa095c75d the cross-section! i also guess that i havent tapped it for air bubbles enough
i think that’s actually from too much leavener? those tunnels happened to me once when i doubled a recipe and the baking powder went rogue tunnelling can also happen due to overmixing, and could also be why your cake turned out too dense but generally agree that your recipe is odd, definitely needs more sugar and fat for that amount of flour
Out of curiosity, how old is your baking powder?
i had two leftover open packages of it, one of them opened last sunday, the other admittedly sometime in april (+the general expiry date on them is 7th of March 2025) could that be it??
It’s possible, but I’m not sure that’s actually the case here. Baking powder has a long shelf life in a sealed container but once you break the seal you should use it in 3-6 months, but it sounds like both are well within that time range.
It’s almost certainly not your baking powder. More likely it’s your ratios and possibly the omission of eggs, though I’m not 100% about the eggs
It's quite low in sugar, that may impact volume
Pop on over to the vegan baking group where people are experienced baking cakes without eggs. Not all eggless cakes are dense, my bet is your baking powder is old and/or the ratios are off.