Why Toothpicks Are the Best Cake Testers

Every week, baking expert Alice Medrich will be going rogue on Food52 -- with shortcuts, hacks, and game-changing recipes.

Today: Our foremothers were on to something -- Alice explains why we should ditch our metal cake testers.

I’ve always heard that our foremothers used broom straws to test cakes. I’m not old enough (or perhaps rural enough) to have actually seen this done, but I have always trusted that the straws used to test cakes were clean and had not yet been turned into a broom, or, if a straw was plucked from a working broom, it was the top end that was used for cake testing rather than the sweeping end.   

Today, a wooden toothpick or skinny bamboo skewer (such as those used for making satay) is my cake tester of choice. Forget those metal things sold as “cake testers”. I would rather pluck a broom straw from (the clean end of) a working broom than use one of those. 

Here’s why: Different types of cakes require different kinds of “doneness”. For some brownies and gooey chocolate tortes we might want the cake tester to come out with moist crumbs or a bit of thickened (not too runny) batter, for other cakes we may be looking for a clean dry tester or a moist-but-clean tester. Moisture shows, and batter and moist crumbs are more likely to cling to a straw or wooden tester. Metal testers are too slippery -- they don’t reveal as much of what is really going on inside the cake as a toothpick, or bamboo skewer, or (probably) a clean broom straw!   

More: 14 chocolate cakes. Get testing.

Alice's new book Seriously Bitter Sweet is a complete revision of her IACP award-winning Bittersweet, updated for the 54%, 61%, and 72% (and beyond) bars available today. It's packed with tricks, techniques, and answers to every chocolate question, plus 150 seriously delicious recipes -- both savory and sweet. 

Photos by James Ransom