Ugh. I am in fourteen inch cake hell.

[geraldinetheluckygoat]

I am baking a fourteen inch round cake in my oven....Ive done a twelve inch square sponge before, and my tack then was to just multiply the recipe 3 times and cook at same temp for longer.

So I have trippled my ten inch madeira recipe for this tin, and have just checked after an hour and a half to see how it is getting on, and the mixture has started to brown on top, but is still sloshing around underneath.

I REALLY hope this cooks ok, as it cost a fortune to make. Now Im paniking that becasue I have opened the oven door before the mixture has firmed up, the cake will sink hideously in the middle.

Arggghhh. Bugger. WHY did i agree to do a fourteen incher????????

No idea why you agreed to a 14" cake.

Can you turn the oven down a bit and cover the top? Won't stop the sunken cake, but would better than a burnt sunken cake.

ha, thats true. have covered the top. Ugh. Think i will end up rebaking two shallower layers tomorrow probably.

OOOH just checked it again, has not sunk! Its getting there, cooking ok and is not looking burnt......

wow, i really hate cooking big cakes! I may be in the wrong job...

I did a 14in round last weekend. I asked in our cake shop regards quantities and was told that the general rule is take 2ins of the diameter and thats the eggs required.

I made a 12egg maderia mixture and it was perfect.

thats a great tip, twinklytoes - did you have a cake big enough to half and fill, or did you have to make two layers?

argh, just cut into the cake, and the top third didnt look done, the rest was perfect.

Twinkly toes, how do you work out, for a madeira, how much of the other ingredients to add to the eggs? Would you be willing to share your recipe with me? Mine seems to be failing me lately!! I usually use carol Deacon's recipe... If you could find the time to let me know how you go about it, I would be really greatful

We get several enquiries at work about madeira recipes and also how to bake large cakes.

Madeira recipe: For every 15 sq inches of cake (multiply us as required - 8 in x 8 in + 64 which is roughly 4 x 15) 1 egg, 2 oz each of butter, SR flour and caster sugar, 1 oz Plain flour, zest of half a lemon and 1 tsp lemon juice. Gas 3 for 40 - 50 minutes

LARGE cakes are a problem area, generally. We tried, several times, to bake a 12" sq cake without a cone, and found the outside got decidedly crisp before the middle was done. As they are generally for celebration and will be iced, there is another way. If you are doing square cakes, bake smaller squares and join up under the icing. If you are doing round, or just don't want to join up under the icing, use a cake cone. These are generally made of aluminium and will draw the heat into the middle of the cake.

This should be your answer. I hope you find it helpful.

Thanks, 4merlyknown, that is really helpful!

Lately I have used a flower nail or two in the cake. Thats worked for the bottom part, but I have found that when I have torted the cake, the bottom is done, and there is a ring of uncooked batter in the top half.

I have been using a recipe which used soft margerine rather than butter, which does come out very moist, but do you think this could be part of the problem?

I will get one of those cake cones, I had wondered about those, hopefully that will help. I will also bake square ones in sections in future, I have just got one of those alan silverwood dividable tins!

Thanks for the help, I find I often run into problems with the baking part, and its always good to have someone who you can ask for advice

Flower Nails? I am not certain what they are, presumably something to do with Flower Arranging. It won't drive much heat into the cake, certainly not if it is made of steel, in a steel pan. You really need an aluminium cone which has (a) a bigger circumference through which to disperse heat and (b) goes from top to bottom, where the top will take in heat from the air in the oven. That should prevent you having a soggy middle (although you might get that if you eat too much cake).

As for soft margarine, I wouldn't use it for two reasons. Firstly, if it is soft, it will have 'other' oils in (to make it spreadable) which may behave very differently to block margarine or butter. Secondly I would generally only use butter anyway, on the grounds of (a) taste and (b) to help our dairy farmers.

You are of course right about the butter, I suppose I started using it as it was so much cheaper and I found the cakes came out lighter with it. I wil ltry your recipe though, so thank you! I will also try the baking core, that sounds like a good bet.

Flowernails are metal "nails" that you use when piping flowers with royal icing or buttercream. I read about using them to help with the baking process on an american site. But thye yare stainless steel, I think.

Thanks again for all the tips!