19 Replies

Hi, Vany, I use a simple syrup, which can be easily flavored – I love to steep a stick of cinnamon in the simple syrup for 5-10 minutes – it makes the syrup taste really nice.

I’ve also added Amaretto, rum, coconut emulsion, or anything else you like. I brush the simple syrup on my cakes (all layers) especially around the edges where it tends to dry out. The result is a very moist cake every time. Hope this helps!

You can add sour cream or pudding while your are mixing and that helps alot. I do that and all my cakes come out moist. You can also wrap them while they are still warm and that helps seal in the moisture.

Thanks everyone! I do the simple syrup as well, but seems like it’s not enough.

Have you ever tried freezing your layers and then decorating after thawing? I don’t do it, but I have had others say that it mad their cakes moister. You might also consider replacing some of the butter in your cake batter recipe with vegetable oil.

I’ve never tried that cupadeecakes. I just read a thread where someone mentioned freezing the bare cake. Would you recommend that? The oil idea sounds good. I will try that.

I recommend baking up a small cake and freezing it as your family dessert one night. I have frozen layers before, but I don’t normally do it. Once you bake it, let t cool completely. Double wrap it in cling wrap and pop it in the freezer. Once your ready, take it out of he freezer. It will thaw pretty fast at room temp. Maybe an hour or 2. The unwrap and decorate. See what you think! :)

Oh yeah, I meant to mention the butter/oil situation. It was explained to me this way… Butter and shortening are solid at room temperature, but oil is liquid at room temp. Your final baked goods will retain the moisture properties of the fat you out into it. So swapping out a little butter for a little oil should yield a moister cake. Hope that makes sense!!

I have tweaked many of my scratch recipes to have a vegetable oil base instead of butter and shortening. Keeps my cakes really moist! I can bake 1-2 days in advance, decorate and the cakes still stay moist 5-7 days later!

I too use vegetable oil in most of my scratch recipes, and it produces the moistest cakes! if you miss the flavor of butter though, i suggest using a combination of butter and vegetable oil (half and half). hope this helps. :)

Thank you guys for all the great tips. I started taking your advices, and so far I am pleased :-) especially the simple syrup trick.

Would like to suggest to maybe drop the temp of oven, I have a convention oven and bake at 370 degrees which converts to 345 degrees. Cakes take just a smidge longer, but turn out lighter in color and more moist. I also use wax paper inside pan (bottom and sides) from Sugar Delight DVD excellent to me it’s like an extra barrier against heat in the oven. GL

Have you tried adding a cup of yogurt & a small box of pudding??

If you freeze the cakes, I suggest that you remove the wrapping while thawing – otherwise, the cakes can get soggy with all the added moisture. At least, that has been my experience.

:)))

I use sour cream in my recipes, before that I could never make a truly moist chocolate cakes. Now that I have seen the power of sour cream I use it in everything. It’s amazing, but sometimes the cakes are so moist they don’t stack so well, I’m still sorting that out J:~D

If the recipe is a scratch recipe, you need to cook your cakes at 325..slower is better. We freeze our cakes and then ice while frozen..and we have never had a dry cake. Also we use a lot of butter, if a recipe calls for 1 1/2 stick we use 2 or especially a red velvet cake we use extra because it is a dry cake. We also brush a simple syrup on the tops of our cakes before they go into the freezer..saran wrap, then foil.

I take my just baked cake, turn it over on a cooling rack (with a cardboard underneath), let it sit like that for 5 minutes, then remove the pan, and wrap the cake several times in saran wrap and then in aluminum foil and pop it in the freezer. About 8-12 hours before I plan to tort, fill, and stack my layers, I move the cakes from the freezer to the fridge to let them thaw. I don’t remove the wrapping because I want the moisture to stay in the cake and not escape the cake while it defrosts. For me, this yields a nicely moist cake and if I feel it needs a little more help, I’ll add a little simple syrup too.

10 min after they come out of the oven wrap them is seran wrap until you are ready to decorate it. The wrap keeps the moist in the cake and you won’t need syrup unless the client ask for it!

I have read in a book that you need to let the cake cool completely before wrapping and freezing, but you guys are saying different here. I guess I will try both ways, and see which one works best for me. Again thank you for all the advice.

I would like to find out when substituting oil for butter do you use the same amount? Example if the cake calls for 2 cups of butter and you want to use oil instead do you simply replace by 2 cups of oil, or is there another way to do it?
One more thing everyone talks about vegetable oil, what about canola oil, does that make a difference?