What went wrong with my cake??

Gemish

Hi all...

I have never ever had a problem when making cakes, they always tun out lovely (if i do say so myself lol) But my oh has been asking for a lemon cake, i've never made one before but didn't think it could be that hard!

I got the recipe out of my bero book and the cakes have turned out only about an inch thick and really dense!! I have made the cake before with different flavours....onyl did an orange one the other day, and they have never turned out like this before. Could it be the lemon i put in??? I squeezed half a lemon into the mix. Should i be using lemon flavouring instead??

Has anyone got a leon cake recipe i could try and see if it works any better??

Thank you x

FallenAngel_2

Have learnt through trial and error myself that 1. making sure the eggs are at room temperature and 2. using SR flour (of course) help cakes to rise well. Wouldnt imagine using lemon juice makes that much difference. Apologies if this doesnt help. x

babyblooz

Was the cake standing about for a while before you put it into the oven? Because the bicarb reacts with the liquid in the recipe, you have to get it into the oven pretty sharpish, or the cake doesnt rise in the right way.

Magpye

Hi OP,

Try grating lemon zest into the cake instead of adding juice, it may be that your mix was too wet. Adding the zest of a lemon to victoria sponge mix works really well and then sandwich it with lemon curd and buttercream - yum!

Olliebeak

I usually sieve half a teaspoon of baking powder with the flour before adding to the marg/sugar/egg bit. And I would have only used just the finely grated zest of the lemon instead of the juice. I would use the juice to flavour the icing for the topping of the cake. Just don't use the juice of the whole lemon or your tongue will stick to the roof of your mouth :rotfl: ! Half lemon juice/half water will make a lovely lemony icing :drool:.

serena

Our favourite is a lemon drizzle cake.

I usually use a 6oz mix, 3 eggs, and grated rind of one lemon. Squeeze the lemon, and add the juice to 4oz of granulated sugar. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, pour over the lemon/sugar mixture. Leave until it gets cold. The lemon juice soaks into the cake, and the sugary crust is left. Yum!

Gemish

I forgot i posted this lol, thanks for all your replys. I think your maybe right and the mix was a bit too wet. will try it with the zest instead.....at least the birds are well fed with 2 failed cakes lol

Penelope_Penguin

Simple question, but did you use plain flour rather than SR

Lemon drizzle cake thread here.

Penny. x