You have bought or baked yourself a cake, and want to preserve, and eat it for a few days. Regardless of the quality of your cake, after a day or two, it doesn’t taste as good as when you first bought or made it.

This is one of the reasons why people prefer pastries for themselves because eating a huge size cake within a day isn’t possible for an average single living person. You will have no choice but to eat a crunchy and less tasty cake unless you know how to keep cake soft.

If baking cake is something that you love, this article will help you to preserve the same freshness and softness of the cake for longer.

Baking a Soft Cake

In order to keep the cake soft for days, first, you need to bake a soft cake, of course. This will be quite similar to how you regularly bake cakes, except for some steps that have to do with the softness.

Don’t Over Bake the Cake

Over baking will make your cake less soft, and it’s more likely to taste crunchy at the end of the day. So, the first thing you need to make sure that you don’t over bake it.

It’s tempting to keep the cake for longer in the oven for the sake of its doneness. But, here, I recommend not doing so.

On the flip side, you cannot check the doneness of the cake too early; it will sink and ruin all your efforts.

Bake the Cake

To prevent that, check the cake best possible minimum time before the recommended time in the recipe. If the recipe suggests baking it for 50 minutes, be sure to check the cake at 40 or 45 minutes.

You can check it without ruining using a toothpick or knife. Bring the baking tray out, and insert a toothpick into the middle of your cake. If it comes out smoothly without any stickiness, you no longer need to bake the cake any further.

Also, you can tap your fingers gently on the top of the cake. If it springs back, and you don’t see any fingerprints on it, know that the cake is done.

Taking the cake out of the oven when it’s just baked, not fully baked, ensures that the cake retains the moisture and keeps it soft for longer.

Right Amount of Sugar

When you look at the suggested amount of sugar for a cake recipe, you always think that’s too much. So, you use a moderate amount of sugar as per your taste bud suggests.

But, sugar has an important role to keep your cake soft as well. As it’s hygroscopic, sugar will attract water, and make sure the cake holds enough water to make it moist. Even after you are done with baking, sugar will absorb moisture from the air, and use it for keeping the cake well-moisturized.

Avoid Using Butter

Instead of using butter, you can try using fruit puree. Apple sauce can be an ideal alternative to the butter. Fruit puree contains fiber, which will take care of absorbing moisture, and retaining it to keep the cake sufficiently moist.

You can reduce half the butter or the whole. Know that replacing butter will make the cake denser. If you don’t have any problem with a dense cake, you are good to go.

Syrup

This is the last step to do regarding baking a soft cake and prevent it from getting too dry.

When your cake is properly baked, consider using a pastry brush and apply simple syrup onto the layers of the cake. The syrup will add some amount of moisture to keep the cake soft for long.

You can also treat crunchy parts or edges using syrup to soften them. This will add some flavor to the cake and taste more delicious. You can make syrup using lemon zest or vanilla extract to amp the flavor and taste.

If you haven’t tried baking a cake before, and interested in baking one, and want to keep it soft for a few days, this recipe will guide you to bake a plain vanilla cake without using any fancy ingredients.

Keeping the Cake Soft

When you are done making a moist, soft, fluffy, and great smelling cake, it’s time to implement some tricks to keep it softer for a few days. All your baking efforts will be worthless if you find the cake hard the next day.

Cake Soft

Once you master how to keep cake soft, you can bake cakes in advance for a get-together or party, and serve it fresh and soft 2 or 3 days after.

1. Wrap the Cake

When your baked cake is exposed to the air, it starts getting hard and crunchy. Air sucks out the moisture of the cake and leaves it crumbly and dry. So, you need to protect it from the air.

Warping the cake will restrain the moisture, as well as keeping it soft for longer. If you want to keep the decorations or display the pretty and delicious looking cake, get a cake stand with a cover, and keep the cake inside it.

2. Use Bread and Fruit

Air is the culprit that ruins the softness of the cake. Therefore, you need to control the air to preserve your desert.

Consider storing your soft cake with a few slices of bread or a couple of apples. Bread and apples have a good amount of moisture to tackle the air and make the cake moist enough. Your desert will also absorb the dampness to be soft.

You will sense apple flavor when you eat the cake. However, the bread will not twist the vanilla or chocolate flavor of the cake whatsoever.

3. Icing and Freezing the Cake

Frosting works as a great sealant to keep the cake soft for longer. The inner part of an iced cake is completely preserved. If you use buttercream, this frosting procedure will be more effective.

Now, wrap the frosted cake, and consider freezing it. When you want to eat, take it out, and let the cake sit at room temperature. After a while, take a knife and cut into big slices.

You will be able to enjoy a fresh cake as if you had just baked it a few hours ago.

4. Avoid the Fridge

I personally like eating cold and a bit hard cake as well. If this isn’t your type of taste, you should avoid storing the cake in the fridge. Your room temperature is far better and more than enough to keep the cake to stay soft. As the inside of the fridge is a dry place, it quickly pulls the moisture off anything.

However, some cakes taste better when you bring them out of the refrigerator, like cake with whipped cream and fresh fruit or frosting layers. Consider wrapping such a cake, and then store in the fridge.

You can decorate your plain homemade cake following any of these decorating ideas.

5. Microwave the Cake

The cake wasn’t soft enough when you baked it, or you didn’t store it well, or maybe it has reached the maximum shelf-life; no matter what, you can still avoid eating a hard cake and make it soft again.

Consider slicing the cake and microwave it for 15 seconds. The heat will make it soft and well-textured again without taking too long.

If you follow this method of softening cake, be sure to eat the dessert immediately. A microwaved cake will become even harder within a very short time. Hence, you will not be able to resist yourself from finishing the cake anyway.

Final Words

Now that you know how to keep cake soft, you no longer need to eat crunchy cake anymore. You can bake one large cake and eat for a few days without compromising much of the taste.