Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A
Results of a small test
Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to tell you of a small test my daughter and I did today. We each made a 6″ round sponge cake, we used the same eggs, flour, unsalted butter, and baking powder, we even used the same oven one after the other so the cakes were cooked on the same shelf at the same temperature. We also both used the same small hand held whisk….you would think they would be the same?…No…whereas, I used two medium eggs my daughter weighed hers and adjusted her ingredients to match. My cake was 150g butter, 150g caster sugar and 125g of flour and 2 medium eggs. My daughter used 140g of butter, caster sugar and flour with 2 large eggs which she weighed first. Both used 1 level teaspoon of baking powder.
My daughters cake rose beautifully whereas mine rose but remained flat on top. Hers was a denser sponge whereas mine was much lighter. Hers tasted eggy somehow like a very light sponge pudding. I have to say both cakes tasted great in their own right and I think my daughters cake would be perfect for carving whereas mine would be a little too light.
Anyone any thoughts on this?
We are both going to have a go at Paul’s moist chocolate sponge and our own versions of chocolate cake so watch this space….
Hi Jgibb
I always use large eggs as I find medium ones give me similar results to your cake. Your cake was probably different to your daughter because you used less flour, medium eggs and leavening, while she used equal quantities with the leavening and large eggs giving her a denser taller cake. The function of eggs in baking in to bind the batter during baking and also to provide volume. I’m assuming you used S/R flour with leavening, and used the one bowl mix method rather than creaming in method? I like one bowl mix but find it does leave an eggy taste. Creaming in method requires the eggs to be really well beaten with the sugar and butter which I find eliminates a lot of that taste and smell. I’ve left a comment in blog about the chocolate cake recipe, just thought it may interest you since you’re in experimenting mode. I’ve tried to do the link thing, still can’t get the hang of it, but I know you’ll find it! x
Hi Madeitwithlove,
Nice to hear from you again. We used plain flour and the creaming method. Now I understand why my daughters cake tasted eggy as she did not cream for as long as I did. If I could bake her shape of cake with the texture and taste of mine we would have the perfect sponge…lol
Next time I make sponge I will definitely use large eggs and I will weigh them and adjust as necessary and I will cream the mixture well…hopefully we will get a better result.
If you scoop your batter to the sides of the tin making a hole in the middle, the cake will bake up beautifully flat. With larger cakes, you can also pop a sugar craft flower nail into the centre of the tin to act as a heating core and that too will give a flatter finish. Although I have to say I look forward to cake doming, I cut the dome off as my little treat! x
I have just become a member this week I made the chocolate cake/ it turn out great.But the teddy bear cake templates how do I get them correct size.B H
Hi BH
The templates should be downloaded on A4 paper, they just fit the paper and that is the correct size. If you have problems downloading type in the searchbox ‘teddy bear cake’, scroll down and go to page 2, then scroll to the question which says teddy bear cake. You’ll see my answer on how to download.
I made this cake Friday, initially ha the same problem as you. I was using Firefox and the page came up too small but if I enlarged it was too big – start panic!! However, i then copied the address and pasted into Internet explorer and printed and it was fine, although some of the edges got a bit chopped off.
