Fix It: Why Do Cookies Spread and Cakes Sink?

Find out the simple reasons cookies spread flat and cakes sink in the middle, and the easy fixes to try next time.

Flat cookies and sunken cakes happen to bakers of every age. Most have a simple cause, so in this lesson you will be a baking detective.

You will learn

• Why cookies spread too much
• Why cakes sink in the middle
• How to change one thing next time

What you need

• Your recipe
• A pencil and paper
• Your grown-up

Steps

1. Cookie clue: warm butterButter that is too soft or melted lets dough spread before it sets. Unless the recipe asks for melted butter, use butter that is soft but still cool. Chill warm, sticky dough before scooping.
2. Cookie clue: trays and flourDough on a warm tray starts melting right away, so let trays cool between batches. Hot trays are a grown-up job, so wait until your grown-up says a tray is cool before you add dough. Too little flour also makes cookies spread, so measure carefully: spoon the flour in until it heaps, then level it, like in Lesson 3.
3. Cookie clue: the ovenIn an oven that is not fully preheated, the dough has more time to melt and spread before it sets. Wait until the oven is fully hot before the tray goes in.
4. Cake clue: the doorA cake's middle stays soft and wobbly until it sets. Opening the door too early lets cool air in, and the middle can fall. Peek through the window instead, and keep your hands and face off the glass, because the oven door gets hot.
5. Cake clue: the middleAn underbaked middle sinks as it cools, so use the toothpick test from Lesson 12. Baking powder and baking soda are ingredients that help bakes rise. Too much makes a cake rise fast and then fall, so level those spoons.
6. Change one thingWrite down what happened and try one fix next time. Changing one thing at a time shows you what really worked.

Try it

• 
  Junior Bakers

  Chocolate Chip Cookie

• 
  Junior Bakers

  Vanilla Cupcakes

• 
  Junior Bakers

  Vanilla Brown Sugar Cookies

Check yourself