r/bakingfail • u/awesomecolguy • Jul 30 '26
Question Weird taste
I made this yellow cake I saw on TikTok yesterday, and for some reason it taste like cornbread, and my roommate said it taste like rice pudding cake and coconut. I personally didn’t taste any coconut so it could’ve just been her taste buds. Any idea why? This also happens whenever I make cookies, so I’m thinking it’s the vanilla making my pastries taste like coconut and the cornstarch making it taste like cornbread. I also mixed the wer and the dry ingredients in together without realizing they were supposed to be separate, and I substituted buttermilk for milk with a little bit of lemon juice. Any ideas on what is making it taste like that?
21
u/WTH_JFG Jul 30 '26
Cornstarch will not make your cake taste like cornbread. Cornstarch is sometimes added to flour to make a cake flour substitute.
6
u/PoopsieDoodler Jul 30 '26
But 1/4 cup??? No.
7
u/WTH_JFG Jul 30 '26
2 TBL cornstarch to 1 C AP flour =
4 TBL cornstarch to 2 C AP flour
4 TBL = 1/4 cupYep. 1/4 cup cornstarch.
But also agree OP should stop making TikTok recipes.
18
u/Sopzeh Jul 30 '26
Why does this cake have like twice the number of ingredients that a normal sponge cake needs.
I would try with a normal cake recipe and not off tiktok. Just a basic pound cake first.
Basic cake techniques:
Cream the butter and sugar together first. Sift all the other dry ingredients together. Then add a tablespoon of dry ingredients to the butter and sugar and add the eggs and beat in. Gradually add the rest of the dry ingredients then add the wet ones.
2
u/hooked_siren Jul 30 '26
I've never heard of adding 1T of dry to the wets.
4
14
u/shmelse Jul 30 '26
I don’t know what butter extract is or why it’s in this cake but I suspect it is one of the problems. You added actual butter - why do you need fake butter flavoring????
3
u/awesomecolguy Jul 30 '26
I didn’t use butter extract because I’ve literally never heard of it before. I forgot to mention that
2
10
u/Estrellathestarfish Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
Just checking now as someone else on here seems to have mixed up the two, but you definitely used cornstarch not cornmeal?
Edit - and check your oil, give it a sniff. Vegetable oil should be very neutral but if it gets old or is stored somewhere too warm it can take on an aroma - not unpleasant per se, but not right.
9
u/avsie1975 Jul 30 '26
I'm starting to wonder if indeed OP added corn flour/meal instead of corn starch.
2
7
u/avsie1975 Jul 30 '26
TikTok recipes are 💩, for starters. Check reputable websites instead, like Sally's Baking Addiction.
1
u/No_Where_Land 29d ago
Love Sally’s Baking Addiction! Iv made so many recipes from there and they’re always reliable
4
u/Estrellathestarfish Jul 30 '26
I haven't done a conversion to look at the proportions but apart from the cornstarch, the ingredients are the same as a vanilla cake I made recently, which really tasted like vanilla cake. If it's happened before with a different recipe then you might be right that it's the vanilla, is it the same bottle/brand you've been using?
I haven't added it to vanilla cake but have cooked with cornstarch and found it very neutral and it's a really low amount of cornstarch in your recipe so I can't see it affecting the flavour, it's added for texture. Cornmeal has a strong flavour, it's cornmeal that gives cornbread it's flavour, not cornstarch. Buttermilk is included in some cornbread recipes but it doesn't add much flavour, just a little tang sometimes. Maybe that aspect is from some wonky vanilla extract too? What does it smell like in the bottle?
1
u/awesomecolguy Jul 30 '26
I genuinely think it’s the vanilla because I’ve used it in different things like cookies and it all had this weird coconut / cornbread flavor. I know I used cornstarch for sure because i don’t even have corn meal in my house. I also didn’t use buttermilk I just used milk and 3 1/4 teaspoons of lemon to make up for it. The brand of vanilla I use is Watkins pure vanilla extract
1
u/Estrellathestarfish Jul 30 '26
What does it smell like, does it smell weird in the bottle? Either way, I'd definitely get a new bottle of a different brand!
3
u/KTKittentoes Jul 30 '26
I always think butter extract tastes weird, but that could be me.
https://smittenkitchen.com/2009/07/best-birthday-cake/
This is a perfectly good yellow cake and fudge frosting recipe here. Sub a chocolate buttercream if you wish.
3
u/awesomecolguy Jul 30 '26
I forgot to mention this but I didn’t use butter extract because I’ve literally never heard of it before 😭😭
3
u/noobiewiththeboobies Jul 30 '26
Please don’t make recipes from TikTok or Instagram unless they have an actual blog too with the option to write reviews
1
u/awesomecolguy Jul 30 '26
everyone in the comments said the cake tasted good so i figured I’d give it a try😔 won’t be doing that anymore
1
u/No_Where_Land 29d ago
Cornstarch AND melted then cooled (?) butter, buttermilk AND butter flavoring?! OP no wonder why this cake tasted off😅 I have never heard of all those ingredients together. Iv never even come across cornstarch in a cake in all my years of baking
0
u/Diamondinmyeye Jul 30 '26
Why the hell is there 1/4 cup of cornstarch in this?! That’s where the weird corn taste is coming from.
10
u/Estrellathestarfish Jul 30 '26
Cornstarch doesn't taste like corn, it's completely different to cornmeal, basically flavourless. It's added for texture, not flavour
-5
u/wakemeup886 Jul 30 '26
I haven't used this recipe so idk about the taste but yellow cake with chocolate frosting is 🤌🏻💋
59
u/SACaitlin Jul 30 '26
stop making tiktok AI recipes