Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I would like some help of the site members.
I have been baking cakes for years and never had issues. Only been decorating cakes for 2 and half years. As a hobby not a business.
What has been happening for the last three weeks when I have been making either a butter cake or madeira cake. Is that they are dense and really greasy.
I really need help to resolve the issues as am at my wits end wondering why this is suddenly happening and what the cause is.
Many thanks in advance.

Hi suzyb53

There’s a few things that cause a heavy greasy cake. Since you’ve never had issues before this could be a problem with your oven. It is possible that your oven is baking at lower temperature than what the dial is saying. If the baking temperature is too low, the fats in the batter liquify allowing the air bubbles created during creaming to escape before the cake begins to set.
Another reason could be the fat is too warm before you start creaming. Fat should be firm and just leaves an indent when touched. If it is too soft before creaming it becomes hot and melts during creaming as the friction from the beaters increases the temperature of the mix. Fat must retain it’s solidity in order to adhere to sugar granules, so as to create starter air bubbles. These air bubbles act as nuclei for the carbon dioxide and steam produced in the baking process. If the batter mix is right the bubbles expand and stay where they are, giving the rise. If the mix is not correct the air bubbles will rise to the surface and escape leaving behind a dense greasy cake as you have described.
This is a technical explanation of what might be going wrong. It could caused by a number of factors. You could have slightly changed your mixing method without realising. It can also happen if you have changed your mixer or you may be mixing too fast.
Check also quality of ingredients, particularly leavenings and self raising flour in case they have reached expiration date or they may have been a poor batch or poorly stored before you bought them.
You may find this blog and comments of some help too:
http://www.cakeflix.com/blog/baking-the-perfect-cake-why-things-go-wrong

EDIT

If you don’t have an oven thermometer I would recommend getting one. Very useful for assertaining internal and external oven temp. x