One of the most difficult things about being a recipe developer is translating all the sights, smells, sounds and feelings that I experience when I'm cooking into words. When I'm writing a recipe, I always try to include multiple sensory indicators that tell the reader as clearly as possible when to move from one step to the next.
But when it comes to telling when a baked good is done, sometimes you need a little more than the ubiquitous “golden brown” indicator that so many recipe writers rely on. We’ve all been there, faces pressed up to the oven door, trying to decide if the cake inside is raw, done, or over-baked. When cooking savory food, you can always put an under-cooked chicken back in the oven, but with baking, you usually only have one shot to get it right.
All my years of recipe testing and writing have left me with a pretty good ability to identify when something is done—call it my baking Spidey Sense. I’ve compiled and recorded all the telltale signs of doneness for each category of baked good so you never have to stand at the oven door and second-guess yourself again.
Alex Lau
Cakes, Quickbreads, and Muffins
If you’ve baked a cake before you’re probably familiar with the "toothpick test." Many recipes tell you to stick a cake tester, skewer, or toothpick into the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean, the cake is done. This is a useful test, but it’s not the sole indicator. Sometimes oil-based cakes or quickbreads produce a clean tester before the batter is fully cooked. This is why I also recommend using your finger to tap lightly in the center of the cake. It should feel firm and lightly springy to the touch. If the batter sticks to your finger or doesn’t produce a bit of resistance, it’s not done.
Another way to tell is color and surface texture. For white or yellow cakes, the surface should be uniformly golden brown all the way across, not just around the edges. Raw batter is shiny because of the butter or oil content; cooked batter is matte. If the edges are dark but the center is still pale and shiny (which happens sometimes if you use a dark pan, which conducts heat differently from a lighter-colored one), reduce the oven temperature by 25° and keep baking.
