Baking fails happen. Here are 4 things that might have gone wrong.

Cooking failures happen all the time, but there’s something about baking flops that prompts us to take them especially hard. Baking is something we do to bring us joy or make someone smile, so to be let down by a loaf of bread, humbled by a batch of cookies or even humiliated by a cake can feel particularly dispiriting. We’re tempted to treat it like a personal shortcoming or flaw — “I’m not a baker!” — and may swear off future endeavors completely.

Take comfort in this: Even professionals (especially professionals!) have their moments of utter failure. I’ve overproofed bread dough to the point of collapse. I’ve curdled cookie dough. I’ve burned the outside of a cake.

Sometimes all we can do is shrug our shoulders and chalk it up to bad luck. At other times, there’s a diagnosable reason your recipe went awry. Here are four potential explanations, based on personal and reader experience. Remember: Failure is just another way to learn — and improve next time.

1. You reduced the sugar too much

Sugar is one of the most fundamental baking ingredients. It’s not just for sweetness. In addition to lending color and moisture to baked goods, sugar provides structural integrity, especially when creamed with butter. Reduce or eliminate it, and you risk failure. Take this (lightly edited) example:

“I made this apple cider loaf for the first time. I watched it rise in the oven and then when I (alas) took it out of the oven, it was completely collapsed. My husband and I ate it anyway, as it was still delicious but puddinglike inside. Here’s my main question: How to prevent loaves like this from collapsing? More specifically, I subbed the sour cream with Greek yogurt (we didn’t have sour cream on hand) and I didn’t add any sugar to the mix (just a bit of sugar on top after it was baked). Could the yogurt or lack of sugar have caused the collapse?”

As I told the reader, I’m confident that eliminating the ¾ cup brown sugar doomed this recipe from the start. My mom experienced something similar with a beloved family recipe for a poppy seed cake that for years would collapse in the center. It was only after she restored the recipe’s full amount of sugar that it worked as expected.

It is nearly impossible to come up with a one-size-fits-all rule for reducing sugar. Success or failure depends on both the type of baked good and the specific recipes, which can vary in ingredients, method, moisture level and more. And often there’s no way to know what will be OK until you try it and it works — or doesn’t. Should you decide to change the recipe anyway, understand the risk you are taking. (And don’t blame the recipe developer when it doesn’t pan out.) The safest bet: Seek out recipes specifically designed with your needs in mind, whether you’re looking for less sugar, naturally sweetened options or sugar alternatives.

2. You used a dark pan

Imagine my chagrin years ago when I burned and dried out the usually golden crust of my family’s apple cake — my all-time favorite food. The culprit: the dark-colored Bundt pan. Dark objects absorb heat more than light-colored ones, and baking pans, which will distribute that heat more efficiently, are no exception. This can lead to darker edges and even reduce the rise of, say, a cake when the edges set prematurely. (You can experience similar issues with glass baking dishes, where the edges can overbake while the center remains raw.)

Another reader learned this the hard way, wondering whether it was their new oven that was causing the bottoms of their cookies to burn regardless of rack position. I asked if by any chance they were using dark pans. A few weeks later, I had my answer: “Your suggestion of light colored cookie sheets has worked out perfectly. I had used dark for over 30 years, as had my mom, but the cookies are perfect now.”

For cookies, I prefer lightweight aluminum sheet pans, such as Nordic Ware. I also use aluminum round cake pans, such as Fat Daddio’s, and aluminized steel loaf and square pans from USA Pan. The Goldtouch line from Williams-Sonoma is another solid option.

If you must use a dark-colored pan, reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees and start checking for doneness at least 10 or 15 minutes before the time called for in a recipe. For cakes, Cook’s Illustrated recommends tightly wrapping dark pans in aluminum foil to help offset their overbaking tendencies.

3. You changed the size or shape of the pan

If you have ever experienced a cake that overflowed the tin, a batch of brownies that was dry instead of fudgy or a loaf of bread with a doughy center, your choice of pan may have been the culprit. Changing the size or shape of the pan called for in a recipe is not necessarily a fatal flaw in baking, though it can be if you fail to make any adjustments.

There are a few things to keep in mind when considering a different pan. The first is volume. While you may be tempted to zero in on a pan’s surface area, that doesn’t take into account the depth of the pan and therefore how much batter or dough it can hold. Find a good conversion guide, such as from the Joy of Baking, King Arthur Baking and Wilton, which you can use to decide whether your desired pan is comparable to what the recipe calls for. (Or measure for yourself by seeing how much water a pan holds.) Make sure using a smaller pan won’t bring the batter too close to the top or that a larger pan doesn’t lead to a much thinner layer prone to overbaking.

Then adjust the baking time accordingly. A pan change that spreads the batter out more (such as going from an 8-inch square pan to a 9-inch square pan) will decrease the time, whereas a thicker layer of batter (such as going from a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan to an 8½-by-4½-inch loaf pan) will increase the time. Moving to a much smaller format, such as turning a quick bread recipe into muffins, will require a dramatic reduction in time. If you are conscientious about all these factors, you can be successful, as was the reader who recently asked about changing a recipe for an 8-inch square pan to work in a heart-shaped pan for Valentine’s Day.

Of course, time is only part of the equation, especially when it comes to changing a recipe. You also risk a baking fail if you make the following mistake.

4. You failed to follow doneness cues

Time is a construct, as the saying goes. This is just as true in baking as it is in life. Recipe times are more like guidelines than rules. After all, differences in ovens and altitude, not to mention any of the other changes you might make to a recipe, can have an effect on how long it takes for your baked goods to finish. That’s why you shouldn’t rely on time alone or take a recipe’s suggested baking time as the be all, end all. Use it as one data point among several.

Temperature is a straightforward, easy-to-evaluate cue that is one surefire way to improve your baking. King Arthur Baking recommends getting your quick bread to 200°F to 205°F, as measured in the center, and yeasted loaves and rolls to 190°F, with enriched options well-suited to the lower end of the spectrum while leaner, more rustic options can be pushed toward 210°F depending on the recipe and your preferences. Also pay attention to the specified color cues, especially with bread. Many cake or cookie recipes shoot for a “golden brown” hue — not too pale and not too dark. Cookies should be set at the edges. Cakes should just begin to pull away from the edges of the pan and spring back when gently pressed with a fingertip. By taking as many different cues into account as you can, you give yourself the best chance for success.