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.

My mum (long RIP) made cakes by eye. No measurements at all!

Yeah ok.

The 2 egg recipe was was too little!

I just did a bit of "pi-r-squared"-ing and was amazed to find that going from 7 to 8 inches makes a 30% increase in the volume.

Though Nigel says 21cm (just over 8 inches) needs 3 large eggs and 175g of everything, which is even more than a 30% increase.

And another thing: There should be a law against misleading pictures in recipes. I'm convinced they just use stock photos of any old thing half the time.

Slather some jam or buttercream in the middle and squish each slice together.

Not jam in coffee cake 😬

I think St Mary needs to ditch her proof reader. Standard is half eggs to ounces of flour 25g = 1oz so if it’s definitely two eggs, use 4oz/200g of flour, sugar, softened butter. Dissolve coffee with a dessert spoon of warm milk.

I use this recipe for an 8" cake as I don't like all in one method cakes. I literally made it last weekend and it came out perfect. I substituted the coffee granules with 2tbsp Camp coffee (bought in Tesco) as it gives a really rich flavour.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/3841956/recipe/no-fail-coffee-and-walnut-cake

Forgot the link to the recipe 🙈

I'm going to try that next. Thanks.

I've made thousands of sponge cakes over the years and often do coffee sponge. For 2 7 inch sandwicb tins use 6,6,6 and 3 eggs, plus 1 and half teaspoons of baking powder, put it all in together and beat with electric hand or stand mixer. Cook for 27 mins in fan oven 165 degrees( ovens may vary of course). For 8 inch tins use 8,8,8 and 4 eggs, 2tsp baking powder.

This is what gets me about most cake recipes: half of them don’t specify what size cake tin to use. 😬

Op, aside from all the v good tips on here, if/when you make the cake again, remember to take your eggs out of the fridge well in advance so they are at room temp. That makes a huge difference to the rise.

I always use the bero book for baking. Doesn’t matter if it’s an old one. Mary berry recipes are good but Bero are better for the basics.
I would use 4oz sugar 4oz margarine 4oz sr flour. Branded such as home pride does give better results. 2 eggs very fresh, 3 if only small eggs, camps coffee essence to taste. I always use imperial measurements. In normal Victoria sandwich tins which aren’t big.
Apricot jam and coffee buttercream inside and more coffee buttercream on top. (Old fashion post war buttercream).
Baking is practice so have another go next week.
Failed cakes can be turned into trifle like desserts or maybe a sort of tiramisu for this one or just esteem with fruit and ice cream

It's easier if you use soft margarine (like Stork or supermarket own brand ) instead of butter. Mary has said that herself on one of the old bake off programmes. I find 3 egg mixture is right for 7" tins and 4 eggs mix for 8"

You’re right that it’s easier but a lot of people (ie me!) use butter over margarine due to margarine being a tub of yucky chemicals

Great tips here. I would do 3 eggs for an everyday cake and 4 eggs for a larger celebration size cake. Baking marg much easier for starting out but agree the UPF stuff isn't good.

I'm surprised so many people add baking powder - self raising flour should be enough for a light sponge and my family don't like the taste of baking powder.

The fact that they baked in 15 mins should be a clear indicator that they were very thin/too little mix for the tins, most cakes take 30-45 mins to bake.

Even a small difference in diameter makes a huge difference in surface area. A 7" tin has c. 38 square inch area, while an 8" one has 50 square inch - 25% more. So you always have to scale up ingredients more than you expect.

I have to make a big birthday cake for my DH in a couple of weeks, and was going to experiment with an ancient stand mixer I borrowed from my mum. I think coffee cake is going to be on the cards. I'll do a 3 egg mix and see how it turns out. I agree re butter/ margarine. Its easier with stork but Stork is made of a lot of rubbish. Butter is nicer. I don't like unsalted butter either, even though I know that's what you are supposed to use.

Salted butter 100% is better in cakes. It enhances the other flavours and stops it being bland and/or sickly.

My all-time favourite coffee cake recipe even has salt as an ingredient. It's a bit fiddly, and you need a little more buttercream than it says, but it is truly delicious. https://www.olivemagazine.com/recipes/baking-and-desserts/vietnamese-coffee-loaf-cake/

It’s recommended if you do all in one method, but not needed if you cream butter/sugar, then add eggs then flour I can’t say I’ve ever noticed it giving the mix a taste though

Did you mean to say half a teaspoon or half a tablespoon?

The recipe says tablespoon :)

Always always always use the tin size specified in the recipe

and work quickly as soon as the wet ingredients have hit the dry ones. The raising agent start to work as soon as it is wet, and you will lose rise if you faff and pootle about.

so tins ready, oven shelves in the right place and oven preheated before you mix wet and dry. Then race to get the mix out of the mixer into the tins and into the oven.