home made cake v's cake mix

melie3

hi all, i know home made is probably the best, but ive been put off recently. i made a 10" sponge cake which i thought had gone quite dry edges, and cake was quite heavy and dense. i made it how i make all my sponges, weighing my eggs first then everything else the same. my smaller cake come out ok, and i thought the large cake would too, but just wasnt the same. i was wondering if i need to decrease oven temp? im cooking at about 4.5- gas mark 5. i have also been using wilton bake strips, which i must say are fab at keeping it flat, could this be overcooking cake(well this is what i assume ive done?) well, i was thinking about trying my local cake shop's cake mix. they make all their cakes by mix, only making their own fruit.

your advice greatly appreciated thankyou

Nicki

Changing the size or shape of the tin you are using always affects the cooking time. I know if I make my usual recipe carrot cake in a round 8 in tin it takes around 30 mins to cook, but the same quantity of mixture in a loaf tin takes 50 mins!

It may be a question of trial and error until you can work out exactly how long your cake needs in the larger tin. Can you find a recipe for a similar cake in a similar size tin, and use the cooking time and temp for it as a guideline.

I imagine using a cakemix will run into the same problems as using a homemade mix, as if your recipe works well in a smaller tin its clearly not the proportions of your ingredients which are out, but the size and shape of your tin.

Bitsy_Beans

I agree with Nicki - it's not the ingredients but length of time, temp and size of tin etc.
My 8" tins normally take around 30 mins on 180 c so I imagine a 10" is going to take longer.
Don't be put off - it's just trial and error.