cake making question 'cake core'

melie3

hi all,
im making a cake for someone next week, and just made a trial cake. its 15" x 11", so i bought a cake core to cook middle. baked cake and left in tin for 10 mins before turning out. when i turned cake out the cake cracked almost in half. its obviously weak around middle of cake. i dont want this to happen to my cake next week, so is it really necessary to use the core? its a chocolate cake, and i cooked it on gas 4 for about 1 1/4 hrs. the reason cake may also have cracked is i had to use two cooling racks. can i join the two racks together any way to make it more stronger? or can you buy big cooling racks somewhere?

any advice i would be so grateful of
thanks mel x

Penelope_Penguin

Hi there :beer: Can you tell me what a "cake core" is, please I've googled and am none the wiser

I sometimes do without a cooling rack

Penny. x

Gingernutmeg

As a baker I never used anything in the middle of cakes, and I often made very large sponges. As long as the cake is properly cooked it should be fairly stable - obviously you'll need to be careful when turning out etc but as I said I never had a problem. I do find it's better to leave the cake in the tin for a bit longer than ten mins though, as such a big cake won't really have cooled much. Lining paper can also help to make a big cake more stable. Also using two cooling trays probably was a problem - you'd probably be able to get a large one from a catering suppliers but two together might be ok as long as you don't leave a gap, or have an overhang of cake, as all of that will put pressure on the middle of the cake. At a guess I'd say that you might even have weakened the middle of the cake by putting something in it?

melie3

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Hi there :beer: Can you tell me what a "cake core" is, please I've googled and am none the wiser

I sometimes do without a cooling rack

Penny. x

hi penny,
i bought it from amercan ebay, its the came thickness as my tin looks like a cone thing which i fill with the cake mix its suppose to cook cake through middle.

melie3

Gingernutmeg wrote: »

As a baker I never used anything in the middle of cakes, and I often made very large sponges. As long as the cake is properly cooked it should be fairly stable - obviously you'll need to be careful when turning out etc but as I said I never had a problem. I do find it's better to leave the cake in the tin for a bit longer than ten mins though, as such a big cake won't really have cooled much. Lining paper can also help to make a big cake more stable. Also using two cooling trays probably was a problem - you'd probably be able to get a large one from a catering suppliers but two together might be ok as long as you don't leave a gap, or have an overhang of cake, as all of that will put pressure on the middle of the cake. At a guess I'd say that you might even have weakened the middle of the cake by putting something in it?

thanks for your advice. i was worried if i left the cake in tin it wouldnt come out, so im wrong there. i use cake release and it had no trouble coming out. do you think a cooling rack 10" x 18 (my cake is 15x11) will be ok. imgonna overhang a 1/2 inch either end?
kind regards mel

Gingernutmeg

Half an inch would probably be ok, as long as you got the cake centered fairly well and it was a pretty even overhang. Just make sure that you don't undercook the cake - the problem with such big cakes is that it's fairly inevitable that the edges will be a little overdone before the middle will be cooked through, the trick is to find that balance of cooking time/temp vs. cooked enough in the middle (which is one of those things that varies from oven to oven lol!) ... and remember that once you start icing/buttercreaming the cake you can 'hide' crispy edges to a certain extent! Personally, for such a big cake I'd go with lining rather than the cake release, just to give you that extra bit of confidence that a) it won't stick, however long you leave it in the tin and b) it'll hold together a bit more. It'll also stop the edges from going quite so crisp.

I've never heard of cake cores and tbh, as I said, I'd personally feel that putting something in the middle of the cake would be a way of weakening it ...

whatatwit

Have you thought of using an oven shelf as a cooling rack....is that any larger.
You could sit it on top of an ordinary one to lift it off the work surface.

melie3

Gingernutmeg wrote: »

Half an inch would probably be ok, as long as you got the cake centered fairly well and it was a pretty even overhang. Just make sure that you don't undercook the cake - the problem with such big cakes is that it's fairly inevitable that the edges will be a little overdone before the middle will be cooked through, the trick is to find that balance of cooking time/temp vs. cooked enough in the middle (which is one of those things that varies from oven to oven lol!) ... and remember that once you start icing/buttercreaming the cake you can 'hide' crispy edges to a certain extent! Personally, for such a big cake I'd go with lining rather than the cake release, just to give you that extra bit of confidence that a) it won't stick, however long you leave it in the tin and b) it'll hold together a bit more. It'll also stop the edges from going quite so crisp.

I've never heard of cake cores and tbh, as I said, I'd personally feel that putting something in the middle of the cake would be a way of weakening it ...

hi again
went to cake studio and the owner didnt know about the cake core lol and said dont use it. i found out how i cracked cake too, i never levelled top off and it had a little dome derrr lol ive learnt that lesson now....
not sure how i go about nicely lining with baking paper(is that the same as greaseproof???) do i just cut the base out then line sides?? am i checking if cake is cooked through right, i normally press top and if it leaves an indent give it a few more mins etc, or should i just do the knife thing??
the cake is going to be covered in a photo topper with black buttercream icing. nice lol. ordered the cooling rack from amazon hoping it will be here by next thursday. thankyou for your advice
regards mel

melie3

whatatwit wrote: »

Have you thought of using an oven shelf as a cooling rack....is that any larger.
You could sit it on top of an ordinary one to lift it off the work surface.

that actually sounds a good idea........ ive just bought a big cooling rack grrrr lol

Gingernutmeg

melie3 wrote: »

not sure how i go about nicely lining with baking paper(is that the same as greaseproof???) do i just cut the base out then line sides?? am i checking if cake is cooked through right, i normally press top and if it leaves an indent give it a few more mins etc, or should i just do the knife thing??

When I'm lining a tin, what I normally do first is draw round the base of the tin then cut that out. Then I cut out strips of paper that are taller than the sides of the tin - these will be the sides of the lining. Fold over a few centimetres at the bottom of each strip, then cut along the strip, only cutting as far in as the fold. The cuts need to be about a centimetre apart (ish). You'll end up with a strip with a 'frilly' bit along the bottom. Then grease the tin, and start by lining the sides. Put the strips in the tin - the 'frill' you cut out folds into the bottom, it helps you to bend the strips around the corners. Go carefully, and push the paper into the sides - the grease will help the paper stick. After you've done the sides, put the piece of paper into the bottom. Hope this makes some kind of sense, it's easy to show someone but hard to write it down!

When I check cakes I always test them with a skewer, knife or toothpick - for me, it's what I've always done so I trust it lol

Re: the dome on the cake. It shouldn't be a massive problem, normally if you've tipped the cake out upside down the weight of the cake flattens it a bit anyway. If you make a slight indentation in the cake mix when you're filling the tin then that can help too. What I normally do is use the 'bottom' of the cake as the 'top' anyway, as the bottom is always nice and flat.

RAMBLER

Hi Hon

The toothpick/ scewer is indeed the way i test all of my cakes, it has never failed, if it comes out clean it is cooked.

Another way to line a tin is to draw around the bottom of the tin on greaseproof (much easier) then fold along the pencil lines, open it up again. One cut diagonally at each corner, which will allow you to make a box, grease the tin , put the paper in and grease again, with non tasting oil.

i am a food teacher and teach this method to my pupils as there is far less faffing (technical term!!) and is much easier.

Or another alternative is cooking two cakes and sticking them together, would that be possible?