Kenwood stand mixer - help cake disaster

LoubyLoo

Sat here in tears. Took delivery of my long awaited and saved up for mixer. Decided to try easy Victoria sandwich cake to try out. First one can't have mixed for long enough - totally in edible so in the bin.

Second attempt - here's what I did. Beat butter first till light and fluffy, added sugar, beat till incorporated then same with eggs and finally flour. Before putting in tins gave a quick stir with wooden spoon to make sure all mixed. Looked lovely light and fluffy and dropping consistency. It was a 6oz plus 3 eggs mixture in 8" tins. After baking for 23 mins, has risen slightly and light brown. Just taken out of tins and sandwiched together and feel so disappointed, very flat and dense.

Have baked by hand for years so not a novice but so wanted this mixer to make life easier.

What am I doing wrong? So hope I haven't made an expensive mistake.

DawnW

I have had a Kenwood for years. It does the beating sugar and butter/ margarine bit far better than you can do by hand. You can use it when you add the eggs as well, but take the bowl out of the stand, sieve in the flour and fold it in to the mixture by hand with a metal spoon. You should not beat in the flour with a mixer. Add a little milk if necessary to make a soft dropping consistency.

Are you using self raising flour? Don't be afraid to add a little extra baking powder for a better rise (not more than a teaspoonful though). Another thing, are you using the right amount of mixture for the size of tin? If the tin you are using is too big, even though the mixture expands, the cake won't be very 'high' up the side of the tin.

Finally, is your oven the right temperature?

Your 'failures' will probably taste ok and be fine for trifle sponges or similar, and keep in the freezer till you want to use them.

It will make your life easier when you get used to it.

flea72

Im more inclined to think that your oven isnt working, if it went wrong twice, or are you using new pans?

Yes, you can overwork cake mix, but it usually separates pre-cooking, and then still bakes fine. Do you normally use 6oz mix in your 8" cake tins? How long did you mix for? I think i mix each stage for about 30secs

scaredy_cat

try beating the sugar and butter together, not but butter first, til light and fluffy, then add the eggs but once the egg is mixed in, add the next - i found this is the stage that you can over beat the mix.

ash28

LoubyLoo wrote: »

Sat here in tears. Took delivery of my long awaited and saved up for mixer. Decided to try easy Victoria sandwich cake to try out. First one can't have mixed for long enough - totally in edible so in the bin.

Second attempt - here's what I did. Beat butter first till light and fluffy, added sugar, beat till incorporated then same with eggs and finally flour. Before putting in tins gave a quick stir with wooden spoon to make sure all mixed. Looked lovely light and fluffy and dropping consistency. It was a 6oz plus 3 eggs mixture in 8" tins. After baking for 23 mins, has risen slightly and light brown. Just taken out of tins and sandwiched together and feel so disappointed, very flat and dense.

Have baked by hand for years so not a novice but so wanted this mixer to make life easier.

What am I doing wrong? So hope I haven't made an expensive mistake.

I throw everything in the bowl together and mix until well combined - don't over mix....I use 8ozs baking marg, caster sugar and self raising flour plus 3 or 4 eggs plus depending on the size and a teaspoon of baking powder for 2 x 8 inch tins. 6ozs of flour etc wouldn't be enough. The cakes would be quite shallow. In fact I often use 300gms of everything. And I always put both tins on the same shelf.

Your recipe I would use for 7 inch tins not 8 inch.

Sometimes I have to add a tablespoon of water - never milk.

And probably a stupid question - but you are using the K beater and not the whisk?

And to be honest for a Victoria sponge I prefer a hand held electric mixer...but that's my preference.

DigForVictory

Dry your eyes & check your oven.
Round one sounds like plain not done it before.
Round two sounds like your oven was hotter than you reailsed.

The Kenwood *will* become your trusted ally, but all alliances start on mutual doubt & uncertainty.

Mean while, feed all experiments to teenage boys. They & their parents will thank you!

sonastin

I do sponge in mine as folllows...

break eggs into a separate bowl and weigh, lightly beat to mix together
put same weight of butter (baking marg usually!) into kenwood bowl and beat till soft (on fairly high speed)
add same weight of caster sugar to kenwood bowl then beat mix until pale and fluffy (on same high-ish speed)
add eggs slowly (while machine still running)
reduce speed of mixer down to absolute minimum and add flour
stop as soon as flour is combined into mix - earlier is better than later as you can always stir in the last few bits with the spatula as you pour it into the tin.

I usually do a 3-egg mix and use a 2lb loaf tin to make a slab cake. Usually add dried fruit or nuts of some description with the flour. Mostly because I am completely hopeless when it comes to sandwiching a sponge - more jam down the sides than in the middle and total failure at getting it lined up. I think my hands are on upside down!

purpledonkey

LoubyLoo wrote: »

Sat here in tears. Took delivery of my long awaited and saved up for mixer. Decided to try easy Victoria sandwich cake to try out. First one can't have mixed for long enough - totally in edible so in the bin.

Second attempt - here's what I did. Beat butter first till light and fluffy, added sugar, beat till incorporated then same with eggs and finally flour. Before putting in tins gave a quick stir with wooden spoon to make sure all mixed. Looked lovely light and fluffy and dropping consistency. It was a 6oz plus 3 eggs mixture in 8" tins. After baking for 23 mins, has risen slightly and light brown. Just taken out of tins and sandwiched together and feel so disappointed, very flat and dense.

Have baked by hand for years so not a novice but so wanted this mixer to make life easier.

What am I doing wrong? So hope I haven't made an expensive mistake.

From what you've said and the ratio of mixture between tins, the cakes should rise to about 1-1.5cm. Usually for tin 8" tins I do 8oz to 4 eggs and a splash of milk. I agree with the above poster about folding in the flour. I have a K-Mix and after beating the sugar/butter, I add the eggs in one at a time with a little flour whilst mixing on a low speed. Then I fold in the rest of the flour by hand. To be fair it could be one off where it didn't work. Hope it does next time, mixers are brilliant they just take a little adjusting to.

allybee101

It can take a bit of practice with cakes - and I still occasionally get a duff one despite plenty of practice!


There's been a lot of great advice here so some of my advice will be repeated.
Beat the sugar and butter together til light and fluffy rather than butter separately.
Add eggs one at a time with a spoonful of flour to avoid mixture separating. Fold in flour by hand using a metal spoon to avoid knocking air out of mix.
Check that your flour/ baking powder isn't out of date. The raising agents deteriorate over time. So whilst the flour isn't off, it won't rise so well.
It might be worth setting your oven a little lower as well so that the cake can rise before the outside of the cake is cooked which will also stop the cake from rising. Chin up and keep practising. If the sponge hasn't risen it can still be used for trifles etc so don't worry!

LoubyLoo

Sounds as if I didn't use enough mixture and also thinking about it the oven may have been too hot.

All advice duly noted and will try again after Xmas.

Thank you to everyone who replied. Feel so much better now.

Happy Xmas everyone :beer:

meritaten

I don't do many sponges but I use the hand mixer to beat the butter and sugar together then the eggs - and very very gently mix in the flour on low speed til just incorporated. then go round with a spatula to make sure no flour is left unmixed.

Ina Garten always says its impossible to overmix the butter and sugar but after that mix as briefly as possible as other wise you beat the air out!
oh and for 8" sponge I would use the 8oz flour and half weight of eggs (usually four medium - large).
don't worry - you will get used to it - just show it who is boss!