Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer – Using Fruit and Chocolate Chips in Cake

Love to bake cakes, muffins and cupcakes but hate it when you add fruit or chocolate chips to the batter only to have them fall to the bottom of the dessert? Find out on today’s Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer the bakery secret to prevent it from falling!

So you picked the perfect basket of blueberries or bought the most amazing chocolate chips. Your stomach is grumbling at the thought of those luscious items in your best cake or muffin. You whip up the batter (while sneaking a few tastes for yourself). You add in those luscious berries or sinful chocolate chips being ever-so-careful not to crush them or break them. You hold your breath as you put the pan into the oven and then you sit there, staring at the oven door silently willing time go faster just so you can eat the end result. You pull it out of the oven and the smell just consumes you but you wait till they cool as you know better. Finally, it’s time to cut it and <insert failure sound> all of those gorgeous berries you cradled so lovingly, all of those sinful chips all fell to the bottom of the dessert leaving you with nothing more than a layer of disappointment.

Has this happened to you? Yeah, me too. Sucks, huh? Oh sure I’ll still eat the dessert but to be honest, the flavor isn’t quite the same. You get too much of fruit or chocolate (though let’s be real, is there ever a thing of too much chocolate?) in one bite and none in the other. The ratio of cake/muffin to mix-in is way off. Plus to be honest, if it’s muffin or cake you’ll end up with a soggy bottom from the fruit. And let’s be real here, no one wants a soggy bottom! But today I have a super simple trick to help you fix this and prevent it in the future!

Okay so this trick isn’t really new and honestly, I thought most folks knew this but shame on me for assuming. I tend to forget that not everyone bakes (or even enjoys it) and you’re all not in my head. Trust me, it’s better this way. It’s a scary place up there plus it’s cluttered. lol So anyway, how to prevent this… pretty basic. For a batter that has no cocoa in, just mix the fruit or chocolate chips in a tablespoon or two of regular flour. For fruit do this gently and only add it right before you’re ready to add the fruit to the batter. For batters that have cocoa in it, mix the fruit or chocolate chips in cocoa powder (whatever type your recipe calls for). Same principle about the fruit though. Next, fold it into the batter and bake.

So why does this work? The coating of flour absorbs some of the liquid released by the fruit as it bakes and keeps the fruit in place until the crumb of the cake has set. For chocolate chips, it helps them stick to the other flour molecules in the batter. Now I do want to mention that when it comes to chocolate chips, in particular, there are two thoughts about wetting them or not before adding the flour. Someday lightly mist them with liquid before adding the flour, while some are against it. I’ve tried both ways and I’ve honestly not found a difference. Give both a shot and see if you can tell a difference.

Now that you know this little tidbit, what deliciousness are you going to create? I’m thinking blueberry muffins with crumb topping personally!