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I'm making a sour cream pound cake for an event. I would ideally like to make the batter in the morning. I have something else I have to do around 11:30, though, and I won't be home for about an hour.

Would it be ok to mix the batter together around 11, cover it, leave and come back? Would my cake be messed up in any way? Should the batter be refrigerated if I let it sit?

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    What leavening is used?
    – Catija
    Jan 3, 2018 at 12:08
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    We cannot answer this without more information @jeanquilt, please post a recipe.
    – GdD
    Jan 3, 2018 at 16:01
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    Why not have wet and dry ingredients prepared, and then combine them at 1:30 when you get home? I do this all the time, often overnight. With perishables, I put the wet in the fridge if overnight.
    – Arlo
    Jan 9, 2018 at 23:47

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Usually cake batter does spoil or become unmixed if allowed to sit for long periods of time. After all, most of it is physically, not chemically combined. That being said, if you need to walk away, you definitely want to refrigerate the batter, esp. if there are raw eggs in the batter. Best to mix a cake batter and bake immediately.

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Given that this question has 10k views I figured I should update everyone.

Yes, I made the batter beforehand, poured it into a bundt pan, and put it in the fridge for about 2-3 hours. When I got home, I let the cake come up to room temperature while the oven preheated.

It came out fine just like every other time I made the same cake recipe.

Turns out that YES you CAN make pound cake batter a few hours ahead of time.

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    This depends entirely on the recipe, especially the leavening agents you're using.
    – nick012000
    Sep 11, 2020 at 5:22
  • @nick012000 baking soda is the only leavening agent in the recipe I used. I would definitely not do this with a cake that relies on eggs for leavening.
    – user63551
    Sep 11, 2020 at 13:03
  • And If you leave a batter that uses yeast as it’s leavening agent sitting too long, it’ll overinflate and collapse when cooked, while if you don’t leave it sitting long enough, it won’t have enough air in it to rise when cooked.
    – nick012000
    Sep 12, 2020 at 0:48

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