How do I make cakes softer and more moist?

A tender crumb needs two things: minimal gluten development and enough moisture retained through baking. Beating flour develops gluten and makes cake chewy; extra oven time evaporates water and makes it dry. Almost every softness problem is one of these.

What you'll need

• Digital scales
• Skewer (optional)
• Soured cream, yoghurt or buttermilk (optional)

Step by step

1. Cream butter and sugar thoroughly before adding anything else.Three to five minutes until pale and fluffy. This is the aeration stage and it is the one place where long beating helps.
2. Fold the flour in gently and stop as soon as it disappears.A few streaks are better than an over-mixed batter. Every extra turn develops gluten and toughens the crumb.
3. Take it out of the oven at the first clean skewer.Start checking five minutes before the recipe time. Overbaking is the leading cause of dry cake by a wide margin.
4. Use room-temperature eggs, butter and milk.Cold ingredients curdle the mixture, which breaks the emulsion and produces a coarser, drier crumb.
5. Swap some of the liquid for soured cream, yoghurt or buttermilk.The acidity tenderises and the fat adds moisture. It is a reliable upgrade to almost any plain sponge.
6. Consider oil instead of butter for a moister result.Oil stays liquid at room temperature, so oil-based cakes feel moister the next day. Butter gives better flavour; oil gives better keeping.
7. Brush with sugar syrup while still warm if it has come out dry.Equal sugar and water, boiled briefly. Brushed over a warm sponge it rescues a dry cake convincingly.
8. Store it airtight once fully cool.Cakes dry out fast in air, and refrigeration accelerates staling. Airtight at room temperature is best.

Tips

• Weigh ingredients rather than measuring by volume. Too much flour is a very common cause of dryness, and cups make it easy to add 20% too much.
• A small amount of cornflour replacing some plain flour lowers the protein content and softens the crumb.
• Cooling in the tin for ten minutes and then on a rack prevents both a soggy base and a dried-out edge.

Common mistakes

• Beating the batter hard after adding flour — It develops gluten and produces a chewy, tough crumb rather than a tender one.
• Baking to the stated time rather than to a clean skewer — Even five extra minutes evaporates enough water to make a noticeable difference.
• Storing cake in the fridge — Refrigeration speeds up starch retrogradation, which is what makes cake go stale. Airtight at room temperature keeps it softer.

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