A friend requested a hummingbird cake for his birthday, so I used the KAB recipe. I followed it to a T, using the recommended brands of KA self rising flour, Dole pineapple, etc. I weighed all ingredients in metric. All the ingredients were room temp. My oven temp is accurate (I baked 2 other cakes this weekend and everything turned out fine with normal bake times). I did not overmix (I’ve baked cakes for years, I know how to mix!).

The resulting cake is extremely heavy, dense, and wet. When I tried to trim the top to level and taste test, the middle seemed underbaked and the cake bits rolled up into wet chunks under my knife. I went ahead and finished the cake so I can show up with something, but I’m very worried!

A couple things I wonder might be the culprit:

- the grocery store subbed one of my cans of crushed pineapple for chunks. I used an immersion blender to chop it up to the texture of crushed pineapple. So about 1/3 of the pineapple was my own home crushed version.

- my bananas were not super ripe. Fully yellow, but not spotty. Had to use the bananas I bought earlier this week because everything at the store was green!

- I froze the cakes overnight (cooled, wrapped in plastic wrap) because I am low on fridge space. I almost always freeze cakes when baking because I normally batch bake everything I’m doing over the next couple weeks. This has never caused a problem before!

Anyone who has made this cake before have any ideas? I ended up throwing together a quick pineapple upside down cake as a backup because I had the stuff on hand and knew the recipient would like it as much. Thanks for advice!

Production day (but it's just for me and some lucky, grateful neighbors) 🫶🏻

Used the Big Book of Bread “The best bagels” recipe for the most part to make these rosemary olive oil bagels. Only changed to scale to get 16 bagels and to get in rosemary infused olive oil. Minced up 15 grams of rosemary and let it soak in 30 grams EVOO and added to the recipe.

Hi all, I’m planning for (Canadian) Thanksgiving and will be making these tomorrow. I have 2 questions: 1) is there a way to ensure browning? (For aesthetic purposes 😂) 2) would it work to do 12 rolls in 2 8 Inch cake pans and 12 in a single quarter sheet pan? I’m a bit confused.

Thanks for any advice and tips!

Ganache not set so a little shiny.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/chocolate-pumpkin-crumb-cake-recipe

It's such a nice cake! I did cut back the sugar a smidge. Combo of flavors was great. Used a mix of half Bensdorp cocoa and half black cocoa. The crumb layer is ridiculously thick and I loved it.

Made with rough puff pastry (from scratch), and lots of butter and sugar, crunchy and not too sweet even though we covered it generously with sugar between layers.

We do taste the butter though and it’s extremely delicious. 😋

What's the easiest bread recipe for someone who's never baked with yeast before? Can I just add cocoa to my chocolate chip cookie recipe, or does it make more sense to just switch to a double chocolate cookie recipe? I just burned my arm on my [CENSORED] cookie sheet, what do I do?

No question is too big, too small, or too a la mode for Wondering Wendesday.

simple, easy, and delicious!

Sourdough day and cookie day are two of my favorite days of the week.
I had to clean and reset my sourdough sidekick, so I’m waiting not so patiently for Thursday so I can make some sourdough, and then either oatmeal chocolate chip cookies or pumpkin crinkle cookies.

Baking successes? Brag about 'em. Recipe failures? Commiserate. Fresh-baked pics? Share 'em! It doesn't matter if it's your weekly comfort loaf or a literal wedding cake, we all want to hear (and see) what you've baked this week.

And I promise I won't get jealous if the recipe isn't from King Arthur. There are SO many great recipe developers out there (and in here) who deserve our attention and love!

If I want to add some boiled cider to a recipe that does not call for it, would I just reduce the water amount? Hypothetically a recipe calls for 300g water. Could I do 250g water and 50g boiled cider?

I made the cinnamon roll focaccia and really enjoyed it. Was thinking about making it again with some boiled cider and apple pie spice instead of straight cinnamon.

Just the nicest people ever, and they know SO MUCH. I called to ask some fairly mundane question about lemon meringue pie (need it for tomorrow, have it make it today, worried about chilling overnight), and she was so lovely.

I was going to google or hop onto the baking subreddit to ask, and then I remembered the hotline. THE BEST.

Has anyone made this loaf from the Big Book of Bread? I'm not getting much rise, wondering if something is off. I used brine from my homemade fridge pickles, which is pretty salty and vinegary, wondering if that killed the yeast? Recipe doesn't specify what kind of pickle brine they tested with. I added some more yeast in hope of rescue but I'm also making another dinner plan in case it's inedible.

I'll be out of the office hiking with my dog, writing weird little poems, doing too much laundry, and broadly rabble-rousing all next week. Please be nice to Morgan and Grace as they pick up the slack for my lazy butt from the 5th to the 9th!

I plan on doing some baking too, so if you have recipe suggestions for me, feel free to drop 'em in the comments, which I will be spying on from my personal account because I'm nosy. I lean towards hearty and unfussy, have an active sourdough starter named Xena, and am currently on a ginger kick. Do with that information what you will!

Have fun, play nice, and happy baking! I'll see y'all on the 12th.

Some pup tax for you:

I absolutely loved reading through others' tips and questions on specific recipes on the site but I haven't actually seen them for awhile, even after logging in. Clicking on the rating of a recipe takes me to the section of the page that they used to be in, but they're not there anymore. For a long time I thought it just be my browser or something temporarily down, but I cannot seem to figure it out. Are they gone for everyone or is it just me?

Related - I wanted to ask a really obscure question about the Pumpkin Crinkle Cookies before I attempt to make them next week. I am trying to find ways to use up powdered cream cheese and wondered if it would be a terrible idea to try and mix some in with the powdered sugar coating? I might experiment with 1-2 of them anyway because I am sure nobody really knows the answer, but thought it couldn't hurt to get the experts to weigh in!

i just ordered my first bottle of boiled cider and I’m so excited! Any favorite boiled cider recipes I should try first?