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My 'from scratch' cake is dry!

post #1 of 6
2/3/12 at 10:58am
Thread Starter 
I got on line as a last resort, searching for "my cake is dry" and this forum came up... I have an awesome recipe that my mother made a zillion times, but every time I make it, it comes out dry... my mother passed away 3 yrs ago so can't ask her. My sister has tried to make the same cake with the same dry results! Can't figure out what we are doing differently! I went so far as to call a baker in town and he suggested peanut butter is no longer as filled with fat as it once was and might be making a difference (health nuts! bah!) I will tell you this, on my last failed attempt, I increased the butter from 3/4 cup to 1 cup. I also added 1/2 cup sugar, from1-1/2 to 2 cups and used whipping cream instead of regular milk, all in hopes that it would add moisture~without any luck. Here is the (original) recipe: Peanut Butter Cake 1 cup smooth peanut butter 3/4 cup butter 1-1/2 cup sugar 4 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 2 cups flour 3 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1 cup milk Cream with mixer peanut butter, butter and sugar. Add eggs, then vanilla. Stir in dry ingredients by hand to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Bake 9x13 pan for 35-40 minutes. Remember the additional ingredients I addes (hoping to help). And I began to check the cake with a toothpick at 25 minutes to remove as early as I could as the baker told me cakes continue to cook once you take them out of the oven. I took the cake out at 32 minutes as the toothpick was nearly dry. I hope you are there, and I hope you might be able to help! Nancy
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post #2 of 6
2/3/12 at 2:17pm

Maybe she fudged the ingredients to keep her version better than anyone elses?

 

It happens.

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post #3 of 6
2/3/12 at 3:56pm
Replace 2 of the 4 eggs with 1/2 cup of applesauce. This always works for me.
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post #4 of 6
2/3/12 at 11:57pm

I found the recipe for peanut butter cake from the 1950 betty crocker cookbook.  You can laugh, but that was produced by a test kitchen and i NEVER in 40 years of baking, had a cake that didn;t come out from this book. 

 

sift together

2 1/4 cup cake flour or 2 1/8 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt

 

add

1/2 cup soft shortening (i'd use butter)

1/2 cup peanut butter (not oily) (that's on the original recipe, so they don't use oilier peanut butter)

1 cup milk

 

beat two minutes

add

2 eggs

beat two minutes

 

pour into prepared pans, two 9 inch layers or one 13 x 9 inch rectangle

bake at 350 for 25 min (layers) and 35-40 (rectangle

 

The method yiou used was a creaming method.  This is another method that works very well.  But try it, then you can try adjusting to the other method if you like. 

Let us know

 

You can add things for moistness, like applesauce, but they change the nature of the taste of the cake. 

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post #5 of 6
2/4/12 at 2:51am

I find that sometimes, some brands of peanut butter tend to dry cakes out. If  your mother's recipe always came out moist, it may have been the ingredients or the technique.

 

Sour cream adds moisture to cake batters. Milk sometimes may dry a cake out too. Keep on practicing that recipe. It's hard to duplicate mom's recipes from memories. I too fail on many of my mom's goodies.

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post #6 of 6
2/4/12 at 6:56am

Don't use a "natural" peanut butter. Use something like Jif, Skippy or Peter Pan, especially if the other ingredient in such peanut butters don't concern you.

The same dry, crumbly texture will occur if you make traditional peanut butter cookies with natural peanut butter.

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