Please give me a definitive answer: Does a cake not rise due to loud noises??

[mkanet]

I'm not sure if this is an old wife's tale or not... but do loud noises (such as kids screaming) prevent a cake from rising when it's baking?

Thanks in advance!

[jessiquina]

there are lots of loud noises in a professional kitchen... cakes seem to be rising..... HOWEVER..... when im baking a cake at home, i tell everyone to be quite so my cake doesnt fall!!! its nice to get some quiet time!!!

[CatheyJ]

I didnt think it was the noise so much as the vibrations from the loud noise.

[Mezzaluna]

I hadn't heard about noise, but I was always cautioned by my mom not to slam the door to the house, the oven door or cupboard doors.

I'll bet some physics student somewhere has done this experiment!

[qahtan]

Many years ago when I lived in London in UK, I remember as a small child my mum always used to say "don't slam the door".if she had baking in the oven. she had a coal burning kitchen range.
I still say it and I have a 30 inch Kitchenaide converction oven.
It took me many years to finally find out why mums said that, It comes from way back when cooking /baking was done by wood/coal burning stoves, and the slamming caused the vibration that in turn made the hot coals to move giving a difference in the temperature of the oven. I cringe when some one almost slams the door. I suppose it is some thing I shall always do.

qahtan

[MaryE]

Originally Posted by Mezzaluna

I hadn't heard about noise, but I was always cautioned by my mom not to slam the door to the house, the oven door or cupboard doors.

I'll bet some physics student somewhere has done this experiment!

Too funny! I was just such a physics student! As a college student studying physics, I tried to make a cake fall while in the oven baking by jumping up and down repeatedly on the floor near the oven. I never got it to happen. But, I suppose it may depend on the type of cake.

So, as a physicist, I still don't the answer! But, then again, I never studied 'cakes' in graduate school!

-Mary

[nowIamone]

I will not help you dispel this saying which has been well used by exasperated mothers for generations. As a mother of two rambunctious boys close in age, I used it often myself...........and from that perspective.... who cares if the cake won't fall?

[Jenyfari]

I always thought that it was due to vibrations or to the change in temperature when you remove it from the oven.

[Erik]

I would think it would have more to do with the type of cake too. I have no trouble seeing someone making a sponge cake like genoise falling by jumping near the oven!

[nowIamone]

09-21-2007 06:05 PM
nowIamone
I will not help you dispel this saying which has been well used by exasperated mothers for generations. As a mother of two rambunctious boys close in age, I used it often myself...........and from that perspective.... who cares if the cake won't fall?

Well, I sit here humbled by my own sarcasm.
But since posting to this thread I have had a the benefit of a little research.

My cake was in the oven, about halfway done. My husband, who has advanced PD and uses a walker was slowly creeping threw the kitchen when he fell backwards right in front of the oven. These are very heavy resounding falls, as with the PD, a person has no ability to grab at anything to break the fall, they just go backwards.

After I got him back on his feet and opened the oven there was a huge crater in my cake. It was done in the center, but just collapased.