Let’s be real: Boiling cake batter sounds insane. Sure, bakers can incorporate canned ingredients to upgrade their boxed cake mix or throw sauerkraut into a chocolate cake to put a spring in its step, but boiling cake batter sounds like an abusive breach of good baking practice. And yet, according to Vivian Villa, chef, product development specialist, and founder of UnButter, this technique is your secret weapon to achieving a moist, perfectly leavened confection. Following the instructions on boxed cake mix to a T isn’t usually the best way to go. If you want to take your baking game to new heights, a little advice from an expert can go a long way — even if it does seem a little unusual.
To be clear, the entire bowl of batter doesn’t need to sit over the stove. It’s the water used to mix everything together that’s the key here. “Boiling water is a key ingredient in cake recipes used to kick-start the leavening process of baking powder and baking soda,” Villa told The Takeout. “Care should be taken to get the batter into the oven right after combining the ingredients, while the leavening agents are active. Too much of a delay and the cake could wind up flat and dense.” It’s not just the leavening agents that benefit from this technique. Using boiling water gives you other advantages.
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Some Types Of Cake Benefit More From Boiled Water
Person adding fruit to bowl of batter – Taras Grebinets/Shutterstock
Certain types of cakes receive extra perks from boiling the water before putting it into the batter. “Recipes calling for dried fruit or raisins are best suited for the boiling method,” Villa said. “Heat helps to ‘bloom’ the fruit, softening it and releasing the flavors into the surrounding liquid to be mixed into the dry ingredients.” Biting into a tart cranberry or sweet apricot is fine, but when those sweet flavors spread throughout the sponge you get a depth of flavor that other cakes lack.
Still, one could argue the most valuable advantage stemming from using boiling water is that it helps prevent one of the most common ways to ruin a cake: overmixing the batter. “Mixing boiled ingredients into dry reduces mixing time, resulting in a moist cake,” Villa said. Although it screams ‘unconventional,’ using boiled water to boost the flavor and give the leavening agents a head start before baking gives you the edge you need to make your cakes stand out.
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