Coffee cake failure. Help.

[Fordian]

I am not a baker at all because my family don't have a sweet tooth.

But I was minded to make a coffee cake.

I followed a Mary Berry, 100g x 3, 2 eggs, coffee. Bought all fresh ingredients.

15 mins in fan oven, checked with a tooth pick.

Disaster.

Batter barely filled the recommended 7" tins. And didn't rise.

Mary tells you to chuck everything in the bowl and electric hand whisk. I did butter, egg, sugar, coffee, combine then hand folded in the sifted flour. To maintain air.

But the whole shebang was 1cm thick. Was it 'the bake'? Too little batter? Note I haven't cut into the cake, so I'm not sure what 'the crumb' is like. But-

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

This one?

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/food/1823157/how-to-make-coffee-cake-mary-berry

Did you add the walnuts?

Did you use self raising flour and enough baking powder?

How old is your baking powder?

I feel like that’s half the amount of mixture that it should be. 2 eggs to 100g?

Not enough mixture. I'd do at least 4 eggs if not six for a 2 layer cake. I weigh my eggs and use weight of the eggs in butter, sugar and Sr flour.

That is a small amount of ingredients for a cake

That isn't enough mixture for a 7" tin.

You can see from the texture that the raising agents have worked, it just hasn't risen much because the tin is too big.

I wonder if there is something wrong with the write up of the recipe, as it is a very small amount of ingredients for 2 x 7 inch tins. Even if you did have the 50g walnuts and even with self raising flour and baking powder.

Are you sure it was supposed to be split between 2 tins?

That’s only enough for one cake. You need to double the mixture for 2 cake tins.

Even in the photo, it appears thin, more like a bar than a cake.

Also with an 'all in one' you're not whipping any air into the batter, the rise comes from the rising agents, are you sure you added them?

I hope it as least edible and therefore partly salvageable.

Should be an 8 oz mixture with 4 eggs for two tins

It will taste lovely with a bit of coffee buttercream/ icing.

Found the recipe on bbc and it only gets 2.5 stars out of 5 here

No comments but imagine this may be why!!

I made an experimental coffee cake the other day after realising I had no butter/ margarine. I used crème fraiche!!! It’s was different but still tasty.

Mmmm coffee cake....

No it’s correct, in old money it’s 4,4,4 and 2…I’m thinking either old flour/baking powder, or wrong size tins….although to be fair for 2x sponges I do 6,6,6,3

I think you’ve only made enough for one tin and needed to double up for 2 tons.

also how old is your baking powder?

Did you accident use plain flour instead of S/R?

The 15 minute baking sounds odd too (although it goes look cooked).
Most BBC recipes are great but some clearly have never been made.
An example is the green tomato chutney - far too much vinegar, too little sugar & needs cooking for at least 3 times longer than the recipe says. Then it's delicious 😂

Were they definitely 7 inch tins? They look wider than that.

I always use Nigel Slater's recipe. It's amazing! (But substitute brown soft sugar for caster for a darker richer tasting cake. And you don't need to bother with the snobby twaddle in his preamble).

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/sep/28/foodanddrink.shopping

Yeah I think 20 mins at least but did skewer or cocktail stick come out clean?

I always weigh the eggs and do same in SE flour, sugar and butter.