Who wants to go to the trouble of baking a cake only to end up with a dry or dense disappointment? Baking should be a fun, enjoyable experience. But sometimes, despite your best intentions (and even better efforts), you end up with dry cake rather than the anticipated light, fluffy, and moist dessert you dreamed of. Luckily, there are a handful of easy ways to both fix a dry cake and prevent it from happening in the first place. We spoke to a pro baker to learn the main causes of a dry cake.

Whether you are making an elaborate layered cake, an old-school bundt, or a simple sheet cake, these expert tips are guaranteed to help prevent (or fix) dry cakes.

Know Your Cakes

It’s easy to assume that a lack of moisture in a cake simply means that the batter didn’t have enough liquid. According to Jason Schreiber, food stylist, recipe developer, and cookbook author, what we perceive as moisture in cakes has less to do with the amount of liquid in the recipe and is more about the ratio of sugar, fat, and flour. 

There are essentially two major categories of cake recipes, says Schreiber.

Sponge Cake: The first is a traditional European-style sponge cake—think genoise and Victoria sponge cakes. They are lower in fat and sugar, creating lightly textured cakes that are typically soaked in syrup after baking. “This creates the optimal balance of a sturdy, yet delicate sponge with endless variations,” he says. They can be a bit fussier since they usually rely on whipped eggs as the leavener and are less sweet than a traditional American-style cake. 

High Ratio Cake: The second type of cake is what professional bakers call “high ratio.” This means they have a higher amount of sugar than flour by weight, and often higher amounts of fat. Schreiber notes that because sugar is hygroscopic (meaning it readily absorbs water), it helps the cake hold onto more moisture during baking–this is the same reason why adding more sugar to cookie dough will yield a chewier cookie. That, along with the added fat (which inhibits gluten development), leads to a somewhat condensed crumb, creating a texture that we perceive as moist. That condensed crumb is also often called a “short” texture. Schreiber makes the comparison to strawberry shortcake—the short in its name refers to its texture, not to its height.

Why Your Cake Is Dry and How to Fix It

Know that you know more about cake types, it’s time to dive into what might be to blame for a less-than-moist dessert.

A Bad Recipe

The number one reason you end up with a dry cake is using a bad recipe, says Schreiber. Always use a well-tested recipe from a reputable source, then measure the ingredients and follow the instructions carefully. “Having a good recipe is more than half the battle. A lot of bad cakes come down not to user error, but a bad recipe,” he says. A poorly written or untested recipe is often the catalyst for the other reasons a cake would turn out dry, which we will discuss below.

How to Fix It

1. Use a trusted source: The best way to prevent ending up with a dry cake due to a bad recipe is to use a recipe from a source that you trust. 
2. Add simple syrup: Even if something else goes wrong, one of our favorite ways to add moisture back into a dry cake is with simple syrup. Schreiber says that brushing a cake with simple syrup is a time-honored way of amping up the moisture in a recipe that would otherwise be on the dry side. It’s standard for many traditional European cakes and fruit cakes, as well as in Middle Eastern baking.

• For a layered cake, the syrup is brushed on the cooled cake after the tops have been trimmed.
• Unlayered cakes are often soaked while the cake is still warm, allowing the syrup to permeate through the entire cake.
• Fruit cakes are usually soaked repeatedly over the course of weeks or months, either with syrup or hard alcohol, which not only moistens the cake but also acts as a preservative.

“No matter what style of soak you use, syrups can be a fantastic way to add flavor to cake in addition to sugar (and therefore moisture), so feel free to experiment with flavorings,” says Schreiber.

Improper Fat or Sugar Content

As Schreiber mentioned above, what we perceive as moisture in cakes is often the result of a good ratio of fat and sugar. Of course, we love butter and sugar, but he assures us that it is indeed possible to have too much of a good thing. “An overly high fat to sugar to flour ratio or an unbalanced recipe will be unstable,” he says. That lack of balance can cause a variety of issues: the cake may not rise properly in the oven, could collapse after baking, or end up gummy.

How to Fix It

Much of this comes down to using a trusted recipe rather than trying to calculate the proper ratios yourself. However, knowing what kind of cake you want is crucial to preventing disappointment.

Schreiber suggests making his favorite style of cake, the chiffon cake. They are a hybrid between traditional sponges and high-ratio cakes, leavened with a mixture of whipped egg whites and chemical leavening (baking soda and/or baking powder). They contain higher quantities of sugar and fat than sponge cakes, but less than high-ratio cakes. In his opinion, they are the perfect solution for a soft, moist, and not-too-sweet cake, and that is largely in part due to the proper sugar-to-fat ratio traditionally seen in the recipes.

Too Much Flour

Adding too much flour to cake batter will not only lead to a dry texture but can also make the cake tough. Flour absorbs moisture, so it’s a necessary element in cake, but there’s a fine line. If the cake batter has too much flour compared to the amount of liquid, it won’t properly hydrate, which can lead to a dry and dense crumb.

How to Fix It

Having too much flour in a cake can be less about the quality of the recipe and more about not measuring the flour properly. Scooping and dumping just won’t do—there is a right way to measure flour. As flour sits in its bag or container, it can become condensed, so it’s important to lighten it before measuring. To do so, use a spoon to scoop the flour into your dry measuring cup, then level it off with the flat side of a knife. If the recipe contains metric measurements, that’s the most accurate way to ensure you’re not using too much flour.

Overbaking

It happens to the best of us. Overbaking can be due to user error or bad timing on a recipe. User error can occur because of incorrect oven temperature, or you simply forgot and baked the cake too long. If your oven temperature is too high, the cake will bake too quickly; too low and you may need to leave the cake in the oven longer than the recipe calls for, in which case the exterior could cook more quickly and dry out while the inside is barely baked.

How to Fix It

1. Check your oven temperature: Don’t reply on the temperature dial on your stove. Keep an oven thermometer in your oven at all times and check that it’s reading at the right temperature before putting the cake in the oven. 
2. Set a timer: Always set a timer so you don’t forget about the cake. Additionally, start checking on the it about 10 minutes before the suggested baking time. 
3. Use simple syrup: The classic simple syrup hack is a great way to fix an overbaked cake. We recommend brushing the syrup onto an overbaked cake while it’s still warm. This will give the syrup the best chance to properly soak into every part of the crumb.