Ditch the Frosting and Soak Your Cake in Syrup

Not every cake needs a thick layer of sweet and buttery frosting. If you want the actual cake to shine through, we encourage a more subtle approach: a syrup soak. A simple dose of syrup can be a great way to bring moisture, complementary flavor notes, and a glossy finish to your cakes. And that matters, because when you have a beautiful, almond-speckled surface, such as the one in our Tangerine-Almond Cake with Bay-Infused Syrup, your’e not going to want to cover it up.

What is a syrup soak?

A syrup soak starts with making a simple syrup: a 1:1 ratio of sugar to water, heated until the sugar dissolves and a small portion of the water evaporates. (You might see syrups with a slightly higher sugar ratio, but this is the benchmark if you’re creating your own syrup soak at home.)

But that’s just the beginning. The beauty of a syrup soak is the opportunity it provides to introduce any number of aromas or flavors to complement your cake. You can either infuse the syrup or add extracts or juices. To infuse a syrup, add things like citrus peel, peppercorns, fragrant seed pods or—as in our Tangerine-Almond Cake—bay leaves to the sugar and water mixture before heating. As the syrup heats and cools, the vital flavors will be extracted. (Note: be sure to remove the infusing elements before soaking the cake.)

Extracts, such as vanilla, almond, or peppermint, can be added to flavor syrups too—but do so after the syrup comes off the heat to avoid any bitter flavors developing.

How to apply a syrup soak

Flavorful syrup soaks are quick to make, extremely low effort and very forgiving. While there is definitely a method for applying syrup soaks to cakes, you’re not going to need to break out the lab equipment.

In our Tangerine-Almond Cake, we make the syrup while the cake is baking in the oven. The finished cake is removed from the oven, and while it’s still hot, several holes are poked into the surface. (Don’t worry: the holes won’t be visible later.) These punctures will serve as entry points for the syrup. Use a pastry brush to apply the soak, brushing it and allowing the syrup to sink in before adding more. This particular cake is an 8-inch round, and uses about 2/3 of a cup of syrup.

Why heat helps

Normally, you’d wait for a cake to cool down before applying buttercream frosting. But when syrup soaks are involved, the cake needs to be hot. A cake, hot from the oven, is still actively steaming; the crumb is open and the fats are still in a soft, liquidfied state. One way to think about this is that the pores of a cake are more open while warm. During this time, the cake absorbs syrup faster than it would later on, when the fats have cooled and the pores have shrunk.

We use syrup soaks for our Broken Phyllo Cake with Orange and Bay, this Double Chocolate Cake with Honey Rosemary Syrup and our popular Amalfi-Style Lemon Cake, but you can try a syrup soak of your own making on your next cake. Start small: Don’t puddle the syrup on, just brush it on 1/4 cup at a time.

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Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Allie Chantorn Reinmann is a Digital Staff Writer for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street. She’s a Thai-American chef who earned her diploma for Pastry and Baking Arts at The Institute of Culinary Education and worked professionally for over a decade honing her craft in New York City at places like Balthazar, Bien Cuit, The Chocolate Room, Billy’s Bakery and Whole Foods. Allie took her know-how from the kitchen to the internet, writing about food full-time at Lifehacker for three years and starting her own YouTube channel, ThaiNYbites. You can find her whipping up baked goods for cafés around Brooklyn, building wedding cakes and trying her hand (feet?) at marathon running. She’s working on her debut cookbook and lives in Brooklyn, NY.