Why did my cake sink in the middle?

[Mrsfrumble]

Basic all-in-one sponge has gone concave. Has my self-raising flour gone off? Did I open the oven door to soon? (I gave it 35 minutes before opening).

It’s for DD’s party tomorrow so now I’ll have to get up at stupid o’clock tomorrow to make a new one.

Would have been the oven door being opened.

Ahh bobbins! A victim of my own impatience then! The oven light is broken so needed to peek.

Smother in buttercream! No one will know!

You could just slice off the top to even it out.

Turn it upside down and ice it. No one will ever know.

Slice it in half, turn it inside out and fill the concave inner with smarties for a “secret surprise”

Style it out

Definitely turn it upside down.
Re the light, use the torch on your phone and shine it through the glass in the door.

These are good ideas! I’ll see how creative I feel in the morning.

ChankleyBore has it right

Chop the whole middle out, fill with sweets, pop a little hat of cake on top and ice it - it's a real thing, it's called a pinata cake :)

I'd say probably a bit too much sugar - when mine end up like that, I swap out a spoon of sugar for a spoon of flour.

Doesn't help now, of course, so I'd second flipping it upside down and covering it with buttercream and some lovely distracting decoration!

Is it an old recipe? Modern flour doesn't have as much baking powder in as it used to have, so the cakes don't rise if you use an old style recipe.

katewhinesalot yes it is! It a Delia Smith from the early 70s. Interesting.

I thought cakes with too much baking agent didn't this -- rose too high, too fast, then collapsed later.

But mine look like this if I take them out before they're completely cooked. I'd guess this one has that telltale line of unbaked sponge running round the inside.