Ina Garten Might Just Have The Answer For Your Collapsing Carrot Cake

Carrot cake is a timeless classic that is a home run crowd pleaser almost every time. But that doesn't mean it's a slam dunk when it comes to baking some. In fact, you can easily end up with a frustrating sunken center that might make your deliciously sweet and spiced creation look a little sad.

Don't worry, even the experts have witnessed this issue. In fact, in her new memoir, "Be Ready When Luck Happens," celebrity chef and TV show host Ina Garten recounts a time in which she had to do some investigative work to uncover the cause of a repeatedly collapsing cake. She describes watching a baker experiencing the collapsing conundrum, and, upon observing the process, discovering that "She had decided to save time by grating the carrots in the food processor, but they came out much wetter that way and made the cake soggy, which caused it to fall in the middle."

Garten's fix? "The solution was to add a little flour to the wetter carrots, and we never had a problem again." So, whether you've followed the Barefoot Contessa's other expert tips, like adding an array of citrus to an apple crisp, or taken her advice for the right brand of chocolate to bake with, if carrot cake is on the menu, you may want to consider this scientifically sound fix.

There are a number of reasons a cake might succumb to this kind of sinking — and they're not limited to carrot cake alone. The cause can be a matter of your measurements being off, your oven temperature being set too low (which can be exacerbated by opening the oven door during the process), or generally underbaking your creation. If you've got too much leavener in your batter, or those leaveners are past their prime, that can also cause this issue. In this case, the collapse is due too much moisture, which makes it difficult to get an even and sturdy rise from the edges to the center of the cake (this is why Bundt pans make sense for certain types of cakes that are heavier on liquid).

When Ina Garten investigated her baker's carrot cake, it wasn't the batter itself that was too wet, but the added moisture from the fresh carrots (which can contain up to 95% water). The flour's ability to soak up some of that moisture is the key to making sure that your carrot cake stays fluffy throughout. You can count this as one of the tips you need when baking the perfect carrot cake. If you're planning to enjoy Garten's cake, which features ingredients like spicy crystallized ginger, sweet raisins, cinnamon, vanilla, and crunchy walnuts, you won't have to worry about anything beyond simply enjoying a slice.