Madeira cake recipe and sizes for christening

[IzziesMummy]

Hello, I need help please.

I've rather madly decided to bake the cake for my son's christening on 6th June.

I have a number of round cake tins of various sizes - 12", 9", 8", 7" and 6".

I need enough cake to serve approx 80 people. I therefore assume I'll need 2 tiers, of possibly 12" and 9".

Can anyone help with the size of cakes I'll need, how many people each cake would serve, and any fail-safe recipes.

I can bake, but I've never tried anything of this scale before. And don't even get me started on decorating it - that's a whole other thread!

Thanks

[IzziesMummy]

Bump

[micku5]

hiya

this website gives you an idea of portion sizes. I do have recipes for vanilla, chocolate and lemon madeira cake.

So let me know what size tins you want to use and which flavour you prefer.

[Shaz10]

When I decorated my son's Christening cake, I used ready made pale blue icing and bought some cake toppers from Ebay.

[Shaz10]

Also I used these recipes. I didn't put the tiers together, instead I hired a 3 tier cake stand which cut out the hassle of trying to assemble the cake at the venue!

[Olihan]

A 12" round sponge will feed 61 people, a 9" round sponge will serve 32 if you cut into standard 1"x2" portions. Because some of the pieces will come from the edges they will be a bit small (the downside of round cakes!) it's better to have slightly more servings than people, iyswim.

Aesthetically, a 9" cake is quite big for a top tier and can look a bit odd because the decorations will be a bit disproportionate. Personally, I'd do a 6" tier on top, just to make it a bit more balanced.

Recipe wise, madeira cakes tend to be very dry and stodgy so I use a victoria sponge recipe with a little bit extra flour to firm it up - regular victoria sponge isn't strong enough to cope with icing and tiers - and all of my customers say it's lovely.

So, for a 12" round cake of 2.5"depth you'd need 12 eggs, 24oz butter & sugar and 28 oz sr flour plus a slug of vanilla extract. I have to say, I bake the really big cakes in 2 layers because they take hours to cook in one layer, plus they can hump in the middle which is a pita.

A 9" cake needs 8 eggs, 16 oz butter & sugar and 18oz sr flour, and vanilla extract.

A 6" cake needs 3 eggs, 6oz butter & sugar and 7oz sr flour plus vanilla essence.

Make them as you would a vicky sponge - cream butter and sugar, add 1 egg & tablespoon flour at a time, then rest of flour & vanilla extract.

I bake at 140 degrees, 6" needs about 40 mins, 9" needs a good hour to hour and a half, 12" (if you do it in 2 layers) needs an eye keeping on it, but around 40 - 50 mins.

If you want advice on how to assemble tiers etc, shout.

You will need to buy 6"/9" cake cards for the upper tiers though and wooden or plastic dowels (you'll need 3 or 4, depending on their length) plus a 15" cake drum for the 12" cake to sit on, just so you know what to order!

[IzziesMummy]

Thank you so much for your help.

My friends think I'm mad for considering this, particularly as one of them recently had a lovely 2tier christening cake made for her son for about £30, and so think it's bound to cost me more to make it myself, nevermind the stress of it.

But we were originally going to cater the christening ourselves, but had to change venues due to numbers so we're now having the party in a local restaurant. So I really want to be able to say I've done something special myself for my son. Whether I'll still be thinking that nearer the time is another matter!

Olihan - wow! Your cakes are fab! Looks like I've got a lot of practising to do! (I'm in Cheshire too btw!)

I hope your cake decorating business is going well. Do you have a shop/website or is it more commissions by word of mouth? I might come back to you later if I need more help. I actually ordered plastic dowelling and a cake board together with icing this afternoon from the craft company, so I'm very pleased to see that I ordered the right sized board!

[Olihan]

Izzie, thanks . Don't have a website yet, have a FB fan page which I'm using in lieu atm. Most of my orders come from word of mouth which gives me enough work to do so it still fits around the dcs.

Let me know if you want any help with the rest, I'm always happy to share tips, etc - it's an addictive hobby though, and as soon as other people realise you can do it you'll be inundated with requests!

[IzziesMummy]

Thanks again Olihan.

I already get asked to bake cakes by friends and family (particularly whem my mums group meets for lunch!) but I've never done much in the way of icing/decorating (a few simple birthday cakes with ready-rolled icing and the rest have been christmas cakes with "proper" royal icing!).

And I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I know I'm going to be stressed about it. Think I'm going to have a trial run this week (not with the full sized cakes, but practising the icing and decorations) but having cake in the house isn't going to help my weight-watchers goals!

Am really hoping I can get into this, as I'd love to be able to make my sons birthday cakes (we always had shop bought sponges as my mum can't cook!)

Right, gotta go - off to weight watchers at 10am and all this talk of cake is making me hungry!

[itsatiggerday]

micku5 cheeky hijack - I'd love to see your recipe for madeira cake, vanilla is fine. My attempts were a disaster and I ended up doing lots of ordinary sponge cakes for a big party. I've got a 10" round or 9" square size tins. TIA

[PlumBumMum]

Sorry can I hijack Olihan
How did you work out how much extra flour to put in to your sponge mix?
I'm toying with the idea of a fanpage, everyone keeps telling me to do it, Not sure wiether I am ready yet, was it easy to set up?

[Olihan]

PBM, I have a general rule of thumb which is an extra oz of flour up to 4oz, extra 2 oz up to 8 eggs and then 3 or 4 extra oz for the really big cakes, plus a bit of milk if the mixture seems a bit stiff. It just makes them firm enough to hold their shape and carve but doesn't taste like cardboard like a lot of madeira cake, imo.

The fan page is dead easy, exactly the same as setting up a normal FB page, tbh, the only difference is the headings of the info page afaik. Go for it, you know you want to.....

[Olihan]

Oh, I should say, the extra oz are always s/r flour, not plain because I find adding plain flour makes for quite a dry, stodgy cake. The texture is much nicer with s/r.

[micku5]

Itsatiggerday, here's the recipe i use

Sizes 22.5cm (9in) Square
25cm (10in) round

S/R flour 400g (14oz)
Plain flour 100-200g (3.5 - 7ozs)*see note
Caster Sugar 400g (14oz)
Margarine 400g (14oz)
Large Eggs 7
Vanilla Essence 2 teaspoons
Glycerine 3.5 teaspoons (optional)
Approx cooking time 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours

1. Pre-heat oven gas 3/ 170 C/ 325 F. The oven shelf should be just below the centre of the oven.
   
2. Line tin. Cut a strip of baking parchment/ silicon paper to fit around the sides of the tin, and stand 2in (5cm) higher than the tin. Make a 1in (2.5cm) fold along lower edge. Snip from the edge to the fold at 1 in (2.5cm) intervals all the way along. Lightly grease tin. Insert strip of paper into tin, with fold at base. Press snipped pieces flat onto base of tin. Press paper against sides. Draw around base of tin onto baking parchment/ silicon paper and cut out shape. Position in base of tin.
   
3. Weigh all the ingredients into mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 5-8 mins until the mixture is light and fluffy
   
4. Spoon the mixture into the tin and make a shallow hollow in the centre
   
5. Bake intil golden brown and firm to the touch. If you are note sure if the cake is cooked insert a skewer into the centre - if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked. If there is any trace of cake mixture on the skewer the cake is not yet cooked
   
6. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about 30 minutes. Then remove it and wrap loosely in cling film, this will help keep the cake moist
   
   *Note - The quantity of flour needed varies on how dense you want the cake to be. For a lighter cake that will be simply decorated use smaller amount of flour, if carving into novelty shape then use larger amount.

[itsatiggerday]

You're a star micku5, thanks so much

[0202]

Hi, can someone help me with a recipe for a 10 inch by 15 inch cake?

(I want to cover it with fondant icicng after)

Also is it best for me to do the recipe twice and layer them?

thank you

[teresajaynekiernan]

Hi,please can anyone help me,i need to make a two tiered cake for an 18th birthday and have read on here that a Madeira sponge would be the best,i want to use a 10" and an 8" but want it quite deep,i know i will have to sandwich the two halves for each cake together.can you tell me what quantity's i need for each half and how long to bake them for and the depth of the size tins i need to use,any help will be much appreciated and any other tips you may want to share will be very useful x

[1986albert]

Hi there trying to do a 15 in round Madeira cake what is the ingredients please
Thanks Nikki

[1986albert]

I need help too I need 15 in round cake ingredients pleaseeeeeeee

[4merlyknownasSHD]

1986, a 15" round cake is a corker. Have you managed to get hold of a tin that size?
The problem you are going to encounter is getting the middle to cook before the outside is burnt to a cinder. You will certainly need to put some sort of heat sink in to the middle (a cake cone/core) or bake it in two halves. As for the recipe, you will have to multiply up a smaller recipe using the area of the cake. For example, an 8 inch recipe multiplied by 4 would do a 16" round cake (or by 2 would do the 16" half round cake, then do it again for the other half).

Any help?

[noideaofname]

Are you still doing cakes Olihan
. Just making your recipe for s 9" sponge cake and using your quantities. Is the 18oz SR flour inclusive of the extra 2oz to firm up the cake for icing or do I need to use 20oz of SR flour. Many thanks.