The Foolproof Technique For Moist Cake Every Time

Baked goods require a lot of precision to turn out perfectly. As Escali explains, accurate measurements are key. If you have too much or too little of a key ingredient like flour because you haven't measured it correctly, you'll end up with less than flawless results. And, that's just the measuring and mixing steps — there's also always the possibility that your oven runs a bit too hot or cold.

Not to mention, every baked good has its own quirks. If you're a cookie connoisseur, you may be interested in tips and tricks that will allow you to get the perfect soft interior paired with crispy edges. If you love brownies, perhaps you're on a constant quest for recipes that allow you to get that crackly top you love. And for cakes, it's all about moistness. Even though a lot of cakes are filled and covered with a layer of frosting, you still never want the primary component, the cake layers themselves, to be dry.

There are many ways to add moisture to your cake recipes, as Sally's Baking Addiction outlines, from using cake flour, rather than all-purpose flour, to adding ingredients such as sour cream or oil. However, there's one foolproof technique that can be applied to virtually any type of cake.

You've made your cake layers, you've followed the recipe carefully and baked them for the exact right amount of time, yet you're still worried about them being dry (or, perhaps you just really value moistness in your cakes and want to ensure your cake will stun anyone sampling it). The solution is simple, as Epicurious explains — you need a cake soak.

As the culinary site outlines, cake soak is a technique that involves brushing baked cake layers with some type of flavor-packed liquid (despite the name, no, you're not actually dunking and soaking your full cake layers — a brushing of added liquid is all you need). This can be customized to whatever the flavors of the cake you're making are. As Where is Cake reports, you could add aromatic coffee flavor notes with a coffee soak, you could incorporate a bit of sweetness and citrus freshness with an orange syrup, or you could opt for something creamy and milk-based, such as a coconut soak. The options are limitless.

Cake soak not only adds moistness to your cake, but it also delivers another burst of flavor. And, per Epicurious, soaking your cake layers can also help them taste fresh for longer, allowing you to enjoy your cake for days. Even the pros use this technique. For example, Milk Bar's cult classic birthday cake recipe involves a simple soak of milk and vanilla extract to amp up the moisture in the cake layers.