I’m so sorry to hear you experienced issues with this recipe, Ingrid! Especially with the rising cost of ingredients, it’s so frustrating when something doesn’t turn out as expected. I’d love to help troubleshoot! Typically when a cake turns out dense, it can be due to a number of reasons.

Firstly, not measuring the ingredients (especially the flour) with a digital scale. If too much flour is added, the resulting cake will be heavy and dry. Secondly, if your leavener has expired, it can have a big impact on the final texture of your cake (learn how to test for freshness here). If you’ve accidentally overmixed the ingredients while adding the eggs or when mixing the wet/dry ingredients together, that can cause excess gluten formation, which results in a dense cake with a tough, chewy texture. Or, if the cake wasn’t baked for long enough or your oven wasn’t at quite the right temp, this can cause an underbaked center, which would result in a dense cake. Lastly, substituting or reducing any ingredients (such as the sugar) would result in a different textured cake, possibly dense.

I hope this wasn’t overwhelming and that one of those reasons stood out to you! This recipe was tested extensively by Tessa and our team before it was published, as well as over 20 of our Baking School alumni from all over the world. I truly hope that you give this recipe another try as it’s one of my very favorites! Please let me know if I can assist further, I’m happy to help. Good luck!

Not a silly question at all! Caster sugar is known as “superfine” sugar in the US. The size of the sugar crystals in superfine sugar is smaller than our granulated sugar, which means it dissolves more quickly in liquid. Because of this, it can increase spread in cookies especially because it melts easily in the oven. We haven’t tested our recipes using superfine sugar, but if you’d like to experiment, feel free to and let us know how it goes! You shouldn’t have to cream the butter/sugar mixture for as long (again because the sugar dissolves more quickly), and though you’ll end up with slightly more caster sugar per cup of granulated sugar, you can typically substitute 1 to 1 (by volume). I hope that helps!

We appreciate your questions, it shows an excitement to learn more about the science behind baking! Cheesecake bars are a type of dessert where switching out the type of cookie used in the crust won’t affect the recipe so drastically as substituting the sugar or eggs in the filling, for example. Our team tests our recipes extensively before they’re published, and a lot of the times have tested a substitution. Read through the blog post first to see if it’s something we’ve mentioned, but always feel free to ask. If it’s something we haven’t tested, we’ll let you know! 🙂

Hi Anitra! We actually tested using beet root powder in place of the red dye in our Red Velvet Cupcakes! You can read our findings here. If you’d rather not use red dye in this recipe, I’d suggest just omitting it rather than substituting for it. Omitting won’t affect the texture of the cake, just the color.

Hi Darnell! You’re welcome to use raisins or a mix of both 🙂 Just keep the weight measurement of the mix-ins the same (1 1/2 cups total). Let us know what you think of this recipe when you give it a try!

Hi Sandra! We link our favorite scoops and their tablespoon measurements in this section here 🙂

Hi Chiara! You can keep SMBC covered at a cool room temperature for a couple of days, but any longer and I’d recommend refrigerating (up to 5 days) or freezing (up to 3 months). Swiss meringue buttercream is stable at room temperature, but if it’s a hot or humid day, I’d also suggest keeping your frosted bake in the fridge until about 30 minutes before serving. I hope that helps!

These will re-melt in the oven but solidify as the cookies cool, with a bit less crunch to them.

These toffee bits melt a little in the oven but solidify while the cookies cool. You can see an example how they look after baking in the pics of our Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies here. Highly recommend you try that cookie recipe, it’s an all-time fave 🙂 Enjoy!

Hi Adrianna! We love using a 9-inch nonstick springform pan for best results with this recipe, which equates to 23 cm.