10.3 Common Defects in Angel Cake and Sponge Cake Products and their Probable Causes

In General:

• Low volume
  • Presence of small amount of fat
  • Sugar added too soon or too rapidly
  • Low quality eggs
  • Slow beating rate
  • Small eggs (if counted, not measured)
• Low volume (shrunken)
  • Overbeating before sugar was added
  • Sugar not well blended into meringue

Soft Meringues

• Low volume and curdled look
  • Overbeaten before sugar was added
  • Overbeaten
• Leakage or weeping
  • Undercoagulation caused by
    • Underbeating
    • Placing meringue on cold filling
    • Short baking time at high temperature
    • Underbaking or Delayed baking
  • Low quality egg
• Beading
  • Overcoagulation caused by
    • Baking on hot filling (although this is recommended for food safety)
    • Failure to dissolve sugar
    • Overbeating
• Dull or dry surface
  • Overbeating
• Low volume, very fine cells, slick shiny surface, will not hold peaks
  • Sugar added too soon
• Low volume, shrinkage, shiny surface
  • Underbeaten after sugar is added
• Shrinkage
  • Not sealing meringue to crust

Hard Meringues or Meringue Shells

• Sticky
  • Underbaking
  • Underbeating
• Hard, tough
  • Overbaking
• Brown with soft or sticky center
  • Too high oven temperature

Angel Cakes

• Low volume
  • Low quality eggs
• Low volume, tough, gummy, thick cell walls
  • Underbeating
  • Excessive folding or mixing
• Low volume with streaks
  • Too much sugar or flour added at once
  • Underfolded
• Low volume, coarse texture
  • Not enough folding of flour and sugar
• Low volume, yellow color, coarse texture, thick cell walls, tough
  • Not enough cream of tartar
• Low volume, fine grain, broken (collapsed) cells
  • Overbeating
• Low volume, tough, compact
  • Overfolding
• Fallen, sugary, crystalline, dry
  • Excess sugar
• Shrunken (Slight shrinkage from highest volume in oven is expected.)
  • Pan not free from fat
  • Underbaking
  • Extreme overbaking
  • Failure to invert pan
  • Extreme overmixing
• Coarse cells, uneven texture, but tender
  • Underfolded
• Top crust separates
  • Excessive overbaking
• Dry and tough
  • Overbaking
• Cake falls from pan
  • Underbaking
  • Traces of fat in pan
•  Soggy, excessively moist cake
  • See causes of low volume
  • Underbaked
• Tough
  • Low quality eggs
  • Overfolding (often because of overbeating egg whites)
  • Insufficient sugar
• Holes and tunnels
  • Insufficient folding
  • Batter not pushed against sides and bottom of pan
  • Overbeating egg whites

Chiffon and Sponge Cakes

• Low volume
  • Overbeating egg whites
  • Overfolding
• Low volume and thick cell walls, layering
  • Underbeating whites or yolks
  • Underfolding
• Tough
  • Not enough liquid
  • Overfolding
• Soggy
  • Too much liquid