Cake Help Required!

[couldtryharder]

OH NO. Have baked the cake bit of my son's birthday cake and it's not looking good . I have a football top shaped tin and used a 5 egg victoria sponge recipe, cooked it at 170 for 50 minutes. Had to put foil on the top half way through as it was getting brown by 20 minutes. It has sunk and is now looking sorry for itself. Was going to cut, fill then ice it but it's so thin in the middle I don't think I can. Am going to try again, but wonder what to do to avoid the same outcome? Lower oven?

Maybe use a madiera cake recipe rather than victoria sponge - it responds better to the low, slow baking needed for a large cake, IME.

try this

350g Butter/margarine
350g Caster sugar
350g SR flour
7 eggs
1tsp Vanilla extract

Bake for 1hr-1hr 15 @160
Its perfect for shaped cakes and lasts at least a week

Also, the Victoria Sponge would not have taken kindly to you opening the oven door half way through. A Madeira cake will be more forgiving in that regard.

Yep, madeira is best for this sort of thing.

Try to hollow out a dip in the middle of the cake before you put it in the oven - i think it helps the inside cook more evenly.