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    Home » Recipes

    Baking Science

    Are you struggling with layer cakes because there are big holes in your cakes? Did your cakes collapse when they came out of the oven? The answers to your baking troubles are here!

    • Two slices of chocolate loaf cake side-by-side to show one has collapsed in the middle.
      Why Do Cakes Sink? How To Stop It!
    • Baking a pie on the bottom oven rack position.
      Oven Rack Position
    • Whipping egg whites to stiff, glossy peaks like a pillowy meringue
      How To Use Baking Ratios
    • A pan of baked honey blueberry muffins with streusel topping.
      Why Do Blueberries In Blueberry Muffins Turn Green?
    • Why Do We Bake At 350 ºF?
    • The freezer plate test with a dollop of strawberry jam to show it wrinkles when it sets.
      The jam setting point and how to determine jam set
    • A box of baking soda and a container of Magic baking powder with a set of measuring spoons for scooping these chemical leaveners
      Baking soda vs baking powder: which chemical leavener do you need?
    • Flat cookies that spread thin in the oven and merged together into one big cookie.
      Flat Cookies And Reasons They Spread Thin
    • Homemade chocolate chip cookies that are too thick.
      Thick Cookies And Reasons Cookies Don't Spread
    • A sheet pan of cut out shortbread cookie stars ready to be baked.
      Why chill cookie dough and other techniques to stop cookies from spreading
    • Why cookies end up very dark on the bottom and completely raw in the middle
    • Pre-shaping bread dough to make a sourdough boule in a Dutch oven.
      Baking with yeast
    • Chocolate caramel layer cake and perfectly smooth caramel sauce
      How to prevent caramel from crystallizing
    • Single-acting versus double-acting baking powder
    • What happens when you bake?
    • How to bake a flat cake and make a cake rise evenly
    • Earl Grey tea layer cake - inside-
      Why are there sometimes large holes inside of cake?
    This is a picture of Janice Lawandi

    Hi, I'm Janice!

    I am a baking-obsessed recipe developer with a PhD in Chemistry who writes about baking and the science of baking.

    More About Me

    Bake With Pumpkin

    • Serving a slice of pumpkin cheesecake topped with whipped cream.
      Baked Pumpkin Cheesecake
    • A yellow plate of baked pumpkin donuts coated in cinnamon sugar.
      Baked pumpkin donuts
    • Scoops of pumpkin ice cream in little bowls with pie crust cookies.
      Pumpkin ice cream
    • Serving pumpkin pie on black plates.
      Pumpkin Pie Without Evaporated Milk
    • A plate with a pumpkin muffin split open and smeared with butter, with a cup of coffee on the side.
      Pumpkin Muffins With Streusel Topping
    • Slices of pumpkin bread served on dessert plates with a cup of coffee.
      Perfect Pumpkin Loaf Cake

    Apple Season

    • Double crust apple pie loaded with apples.
      Maple Apple Pie
    • Slicing into an Italian apple cake to serve it.
      Old-Fashioned Apple Yogurt Cake
    • Apple jam served on a toasted English muffin
      Cinnamon Apple Jam (no pectin)
    • Apple crumb coffee cake ready to be served with cups of tea, plates and a serrated knife
      Apple Crumble Cake
    • An apple cake baked in a square baking pan.
      Apple Butter Cake with Brandy
    • Apple butter pie stencilled with icing sugar.
      Apple Butter Pie

    Eggless chocolate cake

    Chocolate layer cake with cream cheese frosting and chocolate sprinkles on a cake stand.
    Learn to make an eggless chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting!

    Baking conversions

    Buy the baking conversion charts NOW!

    As seen on

    Logos of online and offline publications that featured the Bake School and Janice Lawandi.

    How to poach pears

    Poached pears on an enamelware plate.
    This easy poached pears recipe is simple and you can use the poached fruit for salads, appetizers, and desserts!

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