Why can#t I make nice cakes?

ALIBOBSY

I am lucky in that I started baking when young. Both with my Gran and my mum-my gran made the best fairy cakes and pastry.

But its only recently (the last few years)I have got into cooking meat, and main meals.

Remember no matter how experienced someone is we ALL get disasters, even in pro kitchens some stuff gets binned and redone lol. In fact my little sis used to work at a place where they do ready meals and pizzas and even the production line gets it wrong lol. They used to freeze the products anyway and the staff could buy bin liners full for a £1, lets just say those chicago pizzas have a lancashire accent rofl.

Secret with scones is as quick as possible, like pastry work it as little as possible. I don't even roll scones out now. Make the mix slightly wet as the flour on the board and your hands will add to the mix. Using floured hands shape the dough and keep it moving so it doesn't stick. pat gently out till about 1/2-1 inch thick, somewhere between is about right. Alot cut them too thin its not pastry, better too deep than too thin. Cut using a sharp cutter (or glass edge), and do not twist when pulling the cutter out. Tap in pull straight out.

With all baking the oven need to be preheated and watch the temp, you can get away with a slightly lower temp and cooking for longer, too high and its ruined.

I don't agree with using plain flour for all baking. Especially cakes I use self raising, but thats a personal choice.

A simple sponge recipe is 6oz of flour/6oz sugar/6oz of fat (butter or marg) with about 2 medium eggs.
This is the mis I use for making gairy cakes and does around 12. If you double it (but to save eggs I usually only use 2-3 plus a splash of milk) it will do 2x7 inch cake tins ie a normal sized sponge.

I add a few drops of vanilla essence for plain cake, a splash of Vstrong coffee for coffee cake, around 2 oz of cocoa to replace same amount of flour for chocolate, or lemon zest and splash of lemon juice for lemon cake.
I also quite often cook these as a tray bake ie in a square "brownie" type tin as they can be cut up in little squares for the kids.
Add choc drops, nuts,cherries, dried fruit whatever to the mix. i put in around an oz and see what it looks like, if it seems too mean I add more till it looks about right.

Simple toppings can make a simple cake scrummy, even just plain icing can be yummy, especially with sprinkles on top. Butter cream it also tasty and if you have an electric mixer whipped butter cream tastes very professional. Both types can be flavoured as lemon chocolate coffee etc.
My kids love lemon sponge in a tray with "lemon drizzle" icing or caster sugar melted with lemon juice (I nuke it in the microwave for a few seconds) poured over the warm cake with a few holes poked in it (use a skewer or even a fork). The sweet lemon mix soaks in and is mmmmmmmm. DS says its better than MR KIPLING. So can't argue with that.

Start simple and practice, make one or two items till you can do them in your sleep, then expand as you go.

Good luck
and try to enjoy it.

ali x

Butterfly_Brain

You could be over mixing the batter or if you have a fan oven it is not recommended for whisked cake mixes (This is why I bought a conventional oven)

charliee_3

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

if you have a fan oven it is not recommended for whisked cake mixes (This is why I bought a conventional oven)

really??? I cook quite a lot of cakes in my fan oven and they always turn out fine. the timings require a bit more instinct than a conventional oven, sometimes less, sometimes more, sometimes i turn the temp down a bit if it needs a long cooking time to stop it catching... but i love that i can put cakes on more than one shelf and they cook at pretty much the same rate...

angeltreats

I always had far better results in my old fan oven than in the conventional oven in the house we're living in now.

Dustykitten

Christmas Cake recipe!!

Ingredients:

* 2 cups flour
* 1 stick butter
* 1 cup of water
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 cup of brown sugar
* Lemon juice
* 4 large eggs

* Nuts
* 2 bottle wine
* 2 cups of dried fruit

Sample the wine to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the wine again. To be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the wine is still OK. Try another cup... Just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 eggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the !!!!!!!g fruit up off floor. Mix on the turner.. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the wine to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Check the wine. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or some fink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through the window. Finish the wine and wipe counter with the cat.
Go to Tesco and buy cake.

Bingle Jells!

SallyForth_2

1) Carrot cake (Mary Berry recipe)

Rose reasonably well and tasted ok. I put some cinnamon and nutmeg in it which was nice. It wasn't as light as I would have liked and I didn't chop the walnuts small enough so was too nutty.

Re; the heavy texture - I may have over stirred the flour in a bit too much and was too heavy and I had to leave one tin out of the oven while the other cooked as the wouldn't both fit - would this cause it to lose lightness?

There are several things which could cause the heaviness: Sugar and Butter not creamed enough, eggs not beaten enough, over mixing the flour (especially if it is plain flour), too much carrot for sponge mix? or even oven too high a temp so it was undercooked.

2) Banana cake (Waitrose website recipe)

This actually tastes nice but the texture ends up crumbly and falls apart. I've had to cook it for over 25 mins more than stated (I put some foil over it to stop it browning too much) as it was still so wet in the middle.

Sounds like the oven was at too high a temperature, 25 mins is a big deviation and I would only expect this if you had used a completely different tin, like a deep cake tin rather than a sandwich sponge tin for example. But this was Banana cake, so I would expect it to be in deep cake tin. The crumbliness would have been because it was overcooked, so maybe 25 mins was a bit too long.

Also with sponge type receipe, you can't keep opening the oven door, because the heat loss, will cause the sponge to sink.

Did I end up just drying out out too much? Would it be a good idea to cut down on the amount of oil the recipe calls for, was the mixture just too wet to start with?

Possibly, if your measuring was a bit off, I wouldn't mess with the ingredient ratios just yet though, did the banana have to be well mashed or chopped, as this will effect the texture, especially if there is too much.

Was the tin I used maybe too deep? I think I'm using a 2lb loaf tin (Is the Jamie Oliver silicone loaf mould) but maybe the tin is too deep and making the cake too thick?

What did the receipe recommend you use? I would automatically expect a Banana Cake to be baked in a loaf tin or similar deeper tin.

3) Scones (recipe from my dish)

Again these were ok but ended up like nice rock cakes.

These didn't rise well at all and I thought I cut them out quite thick. Did I handle the mixture too much when rolling and cutting? I also wanted them soft on top but they were crisp (like rock cakes), did I just leave them in the oven too long?

Sounds like you might have overhandled the dough, as it really does need to be lightly worked, and possibly the oven is too hot again so they are baking too fast on the outside, going crisp and preventing them from rising.

4) Double chocolate muffins (Susan Reimer book)

The worst attempt so far.

These were so bland, nowhere near enough sugar, but if I add to much more will it mess with the texture of the batter.

I used Green & Blacks cocoa powder and dark chocolate for the chips (a left over from a gift hamper) and it was all so bitter (probably made worse by muffin not sweet enough.

Green and Blacks Chocolate is incredibly bitter, with virtually no sweetness at all, I suspect the receipe was designed to use more bog standard chocolate, which would be sweeter. Was the chocolate powder meant to be cocoa, or drinking chocolate, which has suger in it? Don't mess with the basic receipe, just add sweeter chocolate chips.

The texture was too dense even though I was really careful about folding in the flour and not over mixing it.
I really wanted them to be light, moist and gooey, but they were the complete opposite!

Chocolate powder can make cake mixture denser, but I assume you followed the receipe, so the texture being dense is a recurring problem, which suggests again that your oven may be too hot. Muffins are funny, where unlike other sponges you sort of throw it all together, give it a quick whizz and put the unpromising looking mixture into the cases, without being too particular with blending everything.

Otherwise, it sounds like you are more than half way to success, don't be put off, and I agree with everyone who suggests sticking with one thing until you have it right and move on from there. I think the muffins would be my choice, as there are quite a lot of variations to attempt.

MissD

I agree with what another poster says, try one or two recipes and try to get them perfect (ie repeat) rather than try a different one every day.

I find it's quite important but not essential to know your oven (you can also look though and check towards the end) and also to weigh the ingredients correctly.

A good mixer isn't essential but maybe a good whisk/hand held mixer would help.

Prue Leith has some great recipes.

Also, maybe try something like, Hamlyn All Colour Book of Cakes (Jill Spencer), I've made gingerbread and more complex iced cakes from there before. And Victoria sponges/chocolate cake with butter cream is also quite easy.

Good luck!

Geeves1980

Just got home from a very long (13 hour shift) and before I go to bed, just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who's replied. (I can't get a sneaky look on internet at work unforunately, so have just got round to reading my way through!).

This was the response I hoped I would get, lots of things for me to think about and so I will just keep plugging away until I get there. I might have to start taking the cakes (the ones that don't end up iun the bin) into work, or else the OH and I are going to be seriously fat by New Year!

I've got a good selection of basic cakes to be getting on with and some of the suggestions people have given have made sense to where I thought I was going wrong.

Some things I didn't think of was the butter/sugar creaming stage and on reflection, I don't think I'm doing this for long enough and the eggs are straight from the fridge (can't remember who mentioned that -sorry).

I think I'm going to start again with the Carrot cake, my mum has made it from the same recipe and it was lovely. I'll take on some of the tips and see how I get on.

Cheers guys x

katieclampet

I've been reading through this thread with interest, since I am hopeless at baking. Every couple of years or so, I have another bash at it, my cooking is ok, but baking is crap. I would quite like to be able to make cakes and puddings occasionally, so this advice has been helpful, I think I have an old bero cook book somewhere, so I might dig it out, and have a go next year!:T
katiex:T

debs2327

i buy the sponge packet mix from sainsburys own make its 29p i put 2 eggs in a voila !!!! gorgeous light fluffy cakes ive made ones with fruit in , choco chips in , flavoured ones , loads more my kids love them not 1 batch had gone wrong ( as im not a brill cook myself lol) at 29p a packet you cant go wrong xx