That's it. I just cannot bake.

[SundayGirlB]

Another recipe followed another cake disaster. Out of god knows how many attempted cakes I can remember maybe 2 that were edible. I follow the recipes. What is happening here.

The latest effort is a courgette and lemon cake. The first one was one of the 2 edible cakes and lovely. I was winning at life. This 3rd attempt has been in the fan oven on 160 as per the recipe for 1hour and the knife is still coming out wet. I've done it all the same.

Why why why why. Baking is either high physics or sorcery. I CANNOT DO IT BUT CAN'T STOP TRYING. That is all.

I use bbc good food for most of my recipes and Mary Berry. I’ve made courgette cake before and it was lovely.

Courgette is very wet and the oven sounds very low.

Agree that I would avoid Nigella. I am a confident baker and have had a couple of her recipes that have obvs not been fact checked properly and not worked. I changed them in the making

You should use Mary Berry or Delia. Try just working up from a basic all in one sponge first. Mary Berry has a failsafe Victoria sponge online that I always use as the basis for birthday cakes. Jamie Oliver also has a good comic relief chocolate brownie recipe online from years ago

I would avoid anything where you are adding more unusual ingredients like courgette for the moment until you are more confident - ie I would not have put the cake in at 160 as would have thought it too low.

Would also second getting an oven thermometer and checking the temp

Suggest you have a look at a great blog 'she who bakes' who takes through everything very thoroughly!

Hello again! So I tried the very simple Mary Berry Victoria Sponge and they sunk in the middle .

Confessions: I am still waiting for the oven thermometer. Couldn't get self raising flour so mixed 1.5 tsp of baking powder with plain instead. Put it in for an extra 5 to try snd get it to rise too.

Thoughts?

Tbf they look a nice colour and they should be perfectly edible , check your baking powder is in date as it doesn't always work if out of date , I think also maybe the oven was too low

It depends how much flour you put the baking powder into too. It should be 2 teaspoons per 150g, and needs to be well mixed.

Seems as though your oven may be a bit unpredictable too, with regard to temperature.

When I first started baking, I had the same. Turns out that I was overmixing it; too much air in the batter causes it too rise too fast and then sinks down to produce that dip.

mixandfold.blogspot.com/2013/04/courgettecake.html?m=1

I use Nigella's Courgette cake recipe every time & it hasn't failed me yet. She has given the exact measurements for the courgettes & the tip is to coursely grate them. If you finely grate the courgette then it turns to mush.