Please..What tips do you have for making a decent cake???

FabDee

Hi

I justed Delias victoria sponge one today and it was made at 3.00pm and my lot have eaten it before 9.00pm.

6 oz SR flour
6 oz caster sugar
3 eggs, I used 2.
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 oz butter or marg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence.

Made a really nice sponge, baked for 20 to 25 mins in oven fan assisted on 180.

Happy New year to all.

IWannabedebtfree

.. I'm going to have a baking session later today, so I've printed out your ideas to try them- also ordered Mary Berry's Fast Cakes book to try it out. I'll report back later! Thanks again, your help is much appreciated.

twink

i have always found you have to be in the right mood for baking, it just doesnt turn out right if you are not, why i dont know

bumpybecky

that is so true twink - some days are baking days, other alas are not I think that goes double for pastry my cakes might be good, but my pastry is appalling!

carly

Use the correct size tins. This is very important as no cake will rise properly and cook to the correct texture if the tins are too large or too small for the amount of ingredients used. It is sometimes worth checking the actual dimensions of the tins if you are not sure.

twink

agree with the tins since delia said the shallow sandwich tins were no use i bought deeper sandwich tins and they were a lot better

leni

I make a High Density Sponge cake using a recipe that uses McDougalls Sponge Flour (about 67p a bag) and have never had a flop or flatty!

mum26

the only thing that has helped my cakes was my nans trick of adding a splash of milk right at the end of mixing, they are gorgeous now

Now if my pastry didn't look like recycled paper.....

thriftlady_2

twink wrote:

agree with the tins since delia said the shallow sandwich tins were no use i bought deeper sandwich tins and they were a lot better

That's a very good point, most recipes only specify diameter of tins not depth. Mine are deep tins

Raksha

If you can get Duck eggs, they make wonderful sponge cakes - they're higher in fat content....