Welcome to Bon Appétit Bake Club, a community of curious bakers. Each month senior Test Kitchen editors Jesse Szewczyk and Shilpa Uskokovic share a must-make recipe and dive deep on why it works. Come bake and learn with us—and don’t forget to join the Bake Club Group chat over on Substack.
I spent years working as a food stylist, and during that time, I picked up a handful of tricks to make food look beautiful. For a steak that glistens, brush on some vegetable glycerin. For a pat of butter that melts just so, heat up an offset spatula and give it a swipe. And for a perfectly domed loaf with a crack right down the center? Keep reading—that’s what we’re learning today.
For the prettiest loaf cakes, slit your batter
Read through my recipe for Chocolate Guinness Cake and you’ll notice an unusual instruction in step TK: “Run a paring knife lightly coated in nonstick cooking spray down the center of the batter, dragging it through about ½-inch into the batter.” Sounds bizarre but this simple maneuver is the key to a symmetrically cracked loaf cake that looks like it came straight from a photoshoot. Let me explain.
Slitting the top of the batter creates a weak spot where your cake will naturally crack and expand. Think of this step like scoring a loaf of bread, allowing it to bake in a controlled, less chaotic, manner. It not only gives your cakes a pristine channel directly down the center of your cake (beautiful! clean! professional!), but allows the batter to rise without much resistance. If you’re adding a glaze on top, the accentuated sloped top allows glaze to drip downward instead of pooling on top. But it’s not just for aesthetics: The expansion opens up the crumb slightly, resulting in a lighter, loftier texture. Not only does it make it more dashing, but actually improves the cake as well.
A few recipes to try out your new styling trick
Of course I recommend trying this trick/technique/TK with the latest BA Bake Club recipe, my {insert recipe link}. But you can use the same technique with just about any loaf cake recipe you come across. I’m partial to our Lemon Pound Cake and Carrot Loaf Cake. Even our Banana Bread is fair game. If it’s baked in a loaf pan, go ahead and slit the top of the batter before baking. Let your inner food stylist shine! Your loaf cakes will be infinitely prettier—and more delicious. Don’t forget to send me a picture of how it goes in the chat.
A generous glug of stout gives this snackable loaf a malty depth.
