Baking - what did i do wrong?

cuca

I am not a baker, but I try I made choc cake last night, but when it had been in oven about 10 mins i looked in and.........

the sides had completely risen over the tin and oozed out into the oven and the middle has sunk completely flat :eek: It stayed that way when it finished baking. THe recipe called for quite a bit of baking powder - do you think it was that - or that I had to fold in the eggs whites after mixing everything else in (i havent done it that way before)???

Argh, will have to have it with custard i think

McKneff

What recipe did you use.
My OH uses the Be-ro recipe and they are always scrummy, chocolate or plain
but there is no mention of baking powder in that one.

And well done for trying but dont give up, (if its edible, warm it for a few minutes in the microwave and cover it with custard - lovely
If you want the Bero Recipe, I'll post it up for you.

Rikki

Too much mixture in the tin can cause it to go over the sides.

Cakes will sink if you open the oven during cooking. Never open the oven no matter who tempted.

Post a link to the recipe for us to get more of an idea what went wrong.

foxgloves

Could have been a smaller tin than the recipe said (though they are not always too good about height of tins, so you could have had right diameter but it was maybe more of a sponge tin than a full cake tin?) Too much baking powder is a possibility as is opening the oven door when it was at a critical stage?

ALIBOBSY

That tends to happen when the cake has risen too fast, the centre can't hold up its own weight and colaspes in the middle. Tends to be because either, oven too hot (have to watch fan ovens), or more likely too much egg or baking power (both help a cake to rise). If the tin was too shallow the spread might have caused the middle to go as well, but I have done cakes where some has gone over the edge and the rest has cooked fine.

I bake alot, started as a child with my gran and you kind of get a feel for when the mix is the right consistancy, but most recipes should be pretty foolproof. I would recheck the recipe it would be unusual for any normal sized cake to take more than say 2-3 teaspoons of baking powder at a max, have seen recipes missprinted with tablespoons instead of teaspoons.

I would try another recipe. Basic sponge is just equal amounts of flour (or dry ingredients such as oats, cocoa (for choc cake), butter or fat (can be oil,marg lard whatever), and sugar ( can sub some for treacle/syrup/honey). Plus an appropriate amount of eggs-roughly 1 medium egg per 2-3 onces of dry weight. For a sponge you would either use self raising flour or a teaspoon or 2 of baking powder.
For plain sponge I add a few drops of vanilla, and DD1 loves pink cake (food colouring).

Most sponges are then variations on this. Perhaps the recipe is wrong?

ali x

ALIBOBSY

BTW cut the flat bit up and call it brownies? The kids will never know. Remember butter icing, icing sugar dustings or custard/cream cover a multitude of sins and no matter what the cake was always MEANT to look like that (families never doubt it lol).

ali x

Opps just assumed you had kids then realised it may just be for you and /or OH. If for yourself and its tasty who cares! If for someone else cover up as above

Dave101t

you did nothing wrong, try to follow the recipe exactly and try again, experience counts and you just got some!

cuca

Thanks everyone. I think it must have been the tins, I bought two new ones but they arent very high on the sides, but I never thought that would have been the problem. (Dunno what Im supposed to use the bloody tins for lol if cakes dont work in em :rotfl:) I have a very very old be-ro recipe book that my nan used to use, but this recipe was jsut one that I took out of another cook book. I think next time I will just stick with good old tried and tested be-ro. I iced the cake, i filled up the centre (which is a huge hole lol) and the kids couldnt get enough of it. And you know what....................even i thought it was blooming delicious :T