Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Hi, I am making a three tier, heart shaped wedding cake. the tins are 12 inch, 8inch and 6 inch. I made the 12 inch as a madeira as a practise run but it seemed very heavy. is it true that I cant use an ordinary sponge recipe which is lighter as there is so much conflicting advice on line! also do you have a chart that tells you the different size quantities and cooking times. thank you. They are deep tins not shallow pans.
I used to make a lot of cakes but havnt done a big project for someone else for a while so feeling a bit daunted.

Hi lynda ballard

Madeira cake is often used because it has longer keeping properties than a normal sponge cake. However, that doesn’t mean only Madeira can be used. You could use a sponge cake recipe. Take a look at Mrs Jones’ recipe on this site:

10’’ Round Deep Vanilla Sponge

When using this recipe for stacking, Mrs Jones advises increasing the flour by an extra 10% in order to give more structure to the finished cake.

Mrs Jones also has a great Madeira cake recipe in the baking section of the tutorial. See it here:

Baking a Madeira

With both recipes, please scroll down to the comments section beneath the video for lots of advice on timing.

For heart-shaped pans, follow recipes for a round cake. Measure the tin at its widest point to gauge the size equivalent to round. Recipes can then be scaled up using the site’s recipe calculator here:

Cake Calculators

Select round shape and depth. Follow the instructions given to see your new recalculated recipe.

Timing will vary since all ovens are different. Follow temperature for the given recipe and babysit until done for definite timing. I make my eyes and nose my best friends to determine timing.

Hope this helps. Please post back if you need more information. 🙂

Thank you so much.