High Altitude Cooking and Baking | Part 2

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Taking into consideration what we learned in our previous video, which explained the science behind atmospheric pressure and water's boiling point at various altitudes, let's take a look at how this effects baked goods, especially cakes.

First, let's stop for a second to think about what a cake is. At it's technical core, a cake is a starch gel. The flour is hydrated with liquid and fat is added to "shorten" the gluten strands, which yields a more tender product. But for the hydrated starch to actually set as a gel, it must reach a temperature ranging from 190-205°F/87-96°C.

As the cake bakes at altitude, the water contained in the batter will begin to evaporate at a lower temperature, yielding a drier product than the same recipe at sea level.

Another fact in play is cakes will also expand (rise) faster at altitude since they have less atmospheric pressure to fight against. Now consider what I just mentioned above; for a cake to fully set, the starch must gel at the same moment the cake has reached the apex of it's structural expansion. If the cake expands too much, it will collapse under it's own weight. If the cake doesn't expand enough, it will have a dense texture.

When a cake recipe gives you a time and temperature for baking...

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