Help! Cake mistake!

[IcarusFlies]

I didn’t have self raising flour so I added 1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda plus a big squeeze of lemon, to a recipe calling for 150g self raising flour plus 1 tsp of baking powder.

I can see that the cake has risen and has a sort of bubbly texture on the top… what can I expect when I get it out of the oven?!

Couldn’t get a great pic through the oven door…

Now attached…

Bicarbonate of soda is 4 times stronger than baking powder so you need to use a 1/4 of the amount of baking powder. Not sure the cake will be great. If it were me I would start again. Do you not have baking powder either?

Oh boy… well I’m out of ingredients, so no… I’ll buy baking powder for next time. Will it have big bubbles in it?

Well cook it and see! It may be delicious

What type of cake is it

It will probably be fine. It might rise too high and sink a bit, it might have a slight taste of bicarb, but it's likely to be quite edible anyway. What's it for? What are the plans to fill/decorate it?

I think with that much bicarb it’s going to taste like a scone. At least that’s all I taste when I eat a scone!

I think I’ve added about twice as much as necessary…

It’s a basic fruit cake - raisins/ sultanas/ cherries/ almonds. I wasn’t planning to decorate it or anything.

Might be bubbly and lumpy inside. Possibly fruit will have all dropped to the bottom. Fine to eat yourself but I probably wouldn't take it anywhere.

Neighbour's kid I babysat for made rock buns as a thank you - she misread the recipe and used a tablespoon instead of teaspoon of bicarb and they tasted like soap! Still ate them though because I'm British and therefore polite. As well as a greedy bastard

Hahaha, well cake is out and looking alright… ish. I can see some almond flakes near the top at least. We have casual guests coming later, was going to serve this but I think I might buy a back up!

You need to taste it before they come

But then I’ll be serving a cut cake…

And?

Hmm, dunno, I always thought you were meant to serve uncut / unopened food…

I also would prefer not to serve a cake with a slice cut out of it.

I'd have to try a bit before serving it up, though. Can you take a sliver off the bottom where it won't show? Or take a bit off the top and cover with icing (if you have any icing sugar in the house) - in fact icing might help if it tastes a bit off.

Cut a little sliver to taste, if it's OK, cut the rest into normal size slices and space them out evenly so it looks whole, but portioned.

Use a cookie cutter to make smaller individual cakes and you can taste an offcut.

I didn't realise you were supposed to serve a cake uncut! Is that a thing?

A cut home-baked cake trumps an uncut bought cake anyday!

Just precut a few wedges ready and remove one thin slice to taste. Arrange it so that it just looks like you have cut it to serve.

Oh, I like that! I'm always a bit lacking in confidence about my baking, but don't want to spoil the look of it by being the Royal taster - not that it looks like anything spectacular😆

I would just explain to your guests that it’s a bit “experimental,” try it together, and have some ice cream etc to hand just in case. Unless you are entertaining the boss and their spouse they’ll probably just think it’s all hilarious as there’s nobody on the planet who hasn’t made a cookery error at some point!

Just cut it into neat rectangular slices and arrange nicely on a plate. That’s perfectly normal for a fruitcake!