Sponge cake disaster

[melodyangel]

Ok so I made a trial run of my wedding cake and it was awful. It was too dense and didn't taste great either. I used this recipe from good food magazine.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6417/orange-berry-wedding-cake

Any tips please.

'Dense' (not risen?) would suggest the mixture was too wet perhaps or that the oven temperature was too cool or that there was insufficient raising agent or that the eggs were overbeaten/underbeaten.... something like that?

Try Delia Smiths Christmas cake, its lush! Or google for a boiled fruit cake recipe, I did one as my christmas cake this year and it went down very well

Too cool ovnen is my suggestion too. What was wrong with the taste?

It rose but wasn't light and fluffy as in the picture. I haven't ever made a proper sponge cake before always just a Victoria sandwich type cake so whisking the eggs and sugar and then using plain flour seemed very odd and it only has an ounce of butter in it. The mixture tasted odd not as creamy as usual. The finished cake was bland , even the teenager turned his nose up at it! I will try again but don't hold out much hope.

Thanks for the tips.

Buy one. I was going to make mine, did half bottom tier and decided to buy one. And I baked regularly.

Cake makers pour syrup over the finished sponge to keep it moist.

The recipe in your link is made with ground almonds. This will make a very firm cake, not light and fluffy. It will have a different texture and taste to a 'normal' sponge cake. I quite like cake made with ground almonds, but if you're not keen, use a madeira receipe which will stay fresher longer and still give you the firmer texture that you probably need for a wedding cake. Red velvet is good too - light choc taste, deep red colour, firm texture

I usually love cakes with ground almonds, but this just didn't do it for me. I think it was the lack of butter but I'm going to try again this weekend and see if I can get it right otherwise I'll make a chocolate base cake with a lemon sponge cake central tier and a vanilla sponge for the top tier. Then cover it in the chocolate paste and fruit.

Imnotaslimjim - my Christmas cake recipe must be an old variation of a Delia one and yes it's really yummy but most of our friends aren't keen on rich fruit cake.

Please keep the tips coming and I'll let you all know how I go.