just had a birthday cake disaster

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

Would anyone care to try and analyse where it's gone tits-up?

(bought an emergency long-life cake from Tesco - yuck - but it will have to do!)

I had used a different recipe than usual for a madeira sponge in 8in/20cm square cake tin (only I susbsituted a tablespoon of flour for cocoa like it suggested if you want a chocolately flavour)

SR Flour: 350g (12oz)
Caster Sugar: 285g (10oz)
Butter: 285g (10oz)
Eggs: 5
Milk: 45ml (3 tablespoon)

The mixture itself looked absolutely fine and as it should when it went in the tin. It said to cook it on 150 deg C, for 1 and a half to 2 hours. Well, it rose ok, but just didn't ever cook through. I had it in for 2 hours 10 mins then just gave up. Was soggy and greasy, and just, well, uncooked in the middle. The very outside edges seemed passable (so I ate them!!!)

Does that recipe look fine to you? I haven't had any cake disasters before so don't know what went wrong....

THe usual Victoria sponge would be 12, 12, 12 and 6 eggs. I think yours sounds about right for a madeira.

Sounds like it could be your oven wasn't hot enough? Did you have it on before to get to the right heat first? If maybe the thermostat isn't working properly.

Just made a Death By Chocolate cake for DS's party today - think I ate my body weight in the very chocolatey ganache frosting

Yep, the oven was well heated up first.

But actually, come to think of it now that you've mentioned it, we've had a couple of pies lately which have not got hot in the middle despite extra time in the oven, which have ended up getting microwaved! Maybe that's what it is.....a thermostat problem. Is there any way to test that properly without having to go through the effort of making cakes that don't cook?!

V Jealous of your cake, sounds delicious! Hope you have a lovely party - my son's is later on today too. I meant to bake the cake a couple of days ago, but DH has been away and I have just not had a spare minute.

Seems like a long time for a 5 egg mix. I would use 160 deg c minimum, but maybe a bit higher for less time. You mix sounds fine, nothing there that would stop it cooking in the middle. I have a foolproof (must be I use it!) madeira recipe if you'd like it?

Thanks, Cakeybaker, but even DH has said over the weekend that he now thinks the oven was to blame and not my crap cake-baking skills (as he thought it was at first). Hes done most of the cooking over the weekend and reckons the oven is just not getting as hot as it should be. It's been quite noticeable that unless you put something to cook right near the top of the oven then it just doesn't get warm enough to cook through properly. Even warming plates up at the bottom of the oven used to work fine, but they still feel coolish when they've been in a while on what used to be an ok temp for them to be warmed up nice and toasty.

I have made madeira cakes in the past and they have been perfect so it made me wonder when this one didn't work. Sounds like the recipe was ok then, just our faulty oven!

Thanks.

To test your oven, buy an oven thermometer (around £5) and use that. Much cheaper than getting the engineer out. If you then find that the oven thermostat is wrong, you can either construct your own chart to adjust nominal temperatures to, or then cll the engineer in.

Thanks, but had heard that cheapo oven thermometers don't really give accurate readings so are a bit pointless?