Confetti cake refuses to bake!

[MixUp]

I've never tried a confetti cake before. I tried it as cupcakes today, just my normal yellow cake batter, unaltered, with sprinkles added. Some sunk to the bottom as expected but they suspended ok overall. It's a thick-ish batter with a lot of corn starch. But the bottoms came out liquid and underbaked. I tried to save them to the point of burning the tops to a muffin crisp. Nothing helps... It stays undercooked... The candy saps all the heat. Chocolate is one thing but I've never worked with a candy additive like sprinkles in a batter. How does one offset the sprinkles and get the bottom to actually bake solid?

 

[retired baker]

I've never tried a confetti cake before. I tried it as cupcakes today, just my normal yellow cake batter, unaltered, with sprinkles added. Some sunk to the bottom as expected but they suspended ok overall. It's a thick-ish batter with a lot of corn starch. But the bottoms came out liquid and underbaked. I tried to save them to the point of burning the tops to a muffin crisp. Nothing helps... It stays undercooked... The candy saps all the heat. Chocolate is one thing but I've never worked with a candy additive like sprinkles in a batter. How does one offset the sprinkles and get the bottom to actually bake solid?

Yep, there your problem, you just added jimmies to your own recipe.
Thats shooting in the dark.
I'd go on youtube and just grab a recipe, then follow it.
I just looked on youtube, theres hundreds of recipes for that.

 

[MixUp]

Yep, there your problem, you just added jimmies to your own recipe.
Thats shooting in the dark.
I'd go on youtube and just grab a recipe, then follow it.
I just looked on youtube, theres hundreds of recipes for that.

Haha, well, that's a fair point. But. I'm partial to my recipe, though I'd still like to tune it. I think the abundance of corn starch can give the exterior "crust" an off taste at times, as though there's a chemical additive in the cake, even though there are none. Might be the vanilla doing that, though. But the interior is dense and moist and fantastic. I'm working on dialing that back. It's not like there's THAT much difference between yellow cake recipes in general, though. Mine does use all whole eggs rather than any portion of separated eggs.

I suppose I'm more interested in figuring out what makes it work or not work and how to adapt the recipe than just pull random different yellow cake recipes. I am assuming it needs to be a thick batter. Some cake batters are more like cookie batter. Those are usually gross and overly sweet, to me. This one is fairly thick but not so thick you need to scoop it, it's still pourable. But thick enough that it holds shape for seconds after you pour it before settling into a smooth surface. It's a ton of butter, a ton of starch, flour-light, only moderate in sugar, actually, a good amount of cream, and a lot of eggs. Good cake! But...not good at holding up the sprinkles, evidently. The result is a little like a pound cake in density, but much softer, and much, much, moister. It's a rich, buttery cake, and cuts sweet "I can't believe it's not buttercream" nicely.

The good news is the burnt crusted tops actually taste good. Like sugar cookies, but less sweet.

If the required batter needs to be one of those thick, excessively sweet ones, I probably don't want to make it anyway. I've seen commercial box mixes get around it by using some sort of color crystals rather than sprinkles. Though I probably don't want to know what they're made of. Not that sprinkles are much better. Ever see what they do to concrete when wet and given a touch of bleach?

 

[retired baker]

Haha, well, that's a fair point. But. I'm partial to my recipe, though I'd still like to tune it. I think the abundance of corn starch can give the exterior "crust" an off taste at times, as though there's a chemical additive in the cake, even though there are none. Might be the vanilla doing that, though. But the interior is dense and moist and fantastic. I'm working on dialing that back. It's not like there's THAT much difference between yellow cake recipes in general, though. Mine does use all whole eggs rather than any portion of separated eggs.

I suppose I'm more interested in figuring out what makes it work or not work and how to adapt the recipe than just pull random different yellow cake recipes. I am assuming it needs to be a thick batter. Some cake batters are more like cookie batter. Those are usually gross and overly sweet, to me. This one is fairly thick but not so thick you need to scoop it, it's still pourable. But thick enough that it holds shape for seconds after you pour it before settling into a smooth surface. It's a ton of butter, a ton of starch, flour-light, only moderate in sugar, actually, a good amount of cream, and a lot of eggs. Good cake! But...not good at holding up the sprinkles, evidently. The result is a little like a pound cake in density, but much softer, and much, much, moister. It's a rich, buttery cake, and cuts sweet "I can't believe it's not buttercream" nicely.

The good news is the burnt crusted tops actually taste good. Like sugar cookies, but less sweet.

If the required batter needs to be one of those thick, excessively sweet ones, I probably don't want to make it anyway. I've seen commercial box mixes get around it by using some sort of color crystals rather than sprinkles. Though I probably don't want to know what they're made of. Not that sprinkles are much better. Ever see what they do to concrete when wet and given a touch of bleach?

Then try adding just half the amount of sprinkle.
Try tossing them in flour. I dunno. duh

 

[MixUp]

Then try adding just half the amount of sprinkle.
Try tossing them in flour. I dunno. duh

At least I don't feel so bad if even you don't have an out of the box fix

The weird thing is, well maybe not weird, is the sprinkles stayed suspended in the batter perfectly until it went into the oven. Something about the heat thinning the batter, and/or the leavening aerating the mix is what made it start sinking.

I just checked out some videos, starting with the Pilsbury "Funfetti" box mix. Darned if that thing isn't even more runny than my own batter! So it's not thickness. Other scratch videos show batter similar in consistency or thinner. One was thicker.

Maybe oven temp. The one showed 350, as is what I used, though my little counter oven isn't exactly the Cadco.....I wouldn't doubt it's 200-250 in spots. And 450 at the top.

 

[retired baker]

They're probably just colored bits, not jimmies.
Imagine something feather light such as panko breadcrumb.

 

[retired baker]

At least I don't feel so bad if even you don't have an out of the box fix

The weird thing is, well maybe not weird, is the sprinkles stayed suspended in the batter perfectly until it went into the oven. Something about the heat thinning the batter, and/or the leavening aerating the mix is what made it start sinking.

I just checked out some videos, starting with the Pilsbury "Funfetti" box mix. Darned if that thing isn't even more runny than my own batter! So it's not thickness. Other scratch videos show batter similar in consistency or thinner. One was thicker.

Maybe oven temp. The one showed 350, as is what I used, though my little counter oven isn't exactly the Cadco.....I wouldn't doubt it's 200-250 in spots. And 450 at the top.

You could take some batter and color it, different colors, bake it light , cool and grate into small bits.
It wouldn't sink in a batter.

 

[MixUp]

Haha, I always force myself to say sprinkles instead of jimmies because half of everyone never knows what I'm talking about. Nice at least someone knows!

I would not be surprised that the "jimmies" in the box mix are not a traditional jimmy but some sort of puffed sugar confection to be less dense. Any boxed anything I assume to be some sort of food engineering product.

And I have seen those mixes with the special granules of some sort instead of jimmies of any kind. Those are feather light.

But the other similar consistency batter scratch cakes appeared to use real jimmies.

That's an interesting idea about baking colored batter. I wonder if those bits would end up giving a clumpy texture though in the finished product?

I'd thought about just crushing the sprinkles in advance. It wouldn't be the bold color streaks, but tiny pieces would float better than large pieces. Not sure what the best tool to crush them might be. They'd gum up any kind of mill. They'd smear into mortar and pestle, and they'd probably just streak like sugary crayons against parchment or wax paper.

 

[retired baker]

Haha, I always force myself to say sprinkles instead of jimmies because half of everyone never knows what I'm talking about. Nice at least someone knows!

I would not be surprised that the "jimmies" in the box mix are not a traditional jimmy but some sort of puffed sugar confection to be less dense. Any boxed anything I assume to be some sort of food engineering product.

And I have seen those mixes with the special granules of some sort instead of jimmies of any kind. Those are feather light.

But the other similar consistency batter scratch cakes appeared to use real jimmies.

That's an interesting idea about baking colored batter. I wonder if those bits would end up giving a clumpy texture though in the finished product?

I'd thought about just crushing the sprinkles in advance. It wouldn't be the bold color streaks, but tiny pieces would float better than large pieces. Not sure what the best tool to crush them might be. They'd gum up any kind of mill. They'd smear into mortar and pestle, and they'd probably just streak like sugary crayons against parchment or wax paper.

Yeh, puffed rice.
My wife is chinese, she makes it by spreading leftover cooked rice in the sun to dehydrate it, then just deep fry.
Seems like a lot of processing for cupcakes.

 

[MixUp]

Yeh, puffed rice.
My wife is chinese, she makes it by spreading leftover cooked rice in the sun to dehydrate it, then just deep fry.
Seems like a lot of processing for cupcakes.

That *is* a lot of processing for cupcakes. Ick! That's about 4 steps too many for me to be bothered with. If I could think of a good way to crush the jimmies I'd try that.

Shame, in the places where the confetti worked out, it looks really good. It's fun to eat. But if I can't reduce the jimmy weight, it's not going to happen again. Crushing might be a good approach, but I have to think of a good mechanism for crushing. I might just try parchment and a mallet, but I'm not confident in that. Maybe a nut chopper. It's too little content for a food processor, plus I don't have a full size one. I have the KA attachment for slicing/shredding/dicing, but not an S blade. Well, I have an 11 cup FP in a box somewhere that I don't intend to ever find counter space for. I have a little chopper on an immersion blender, but that's too much cleanup for jimmies anyway.