how can I stop my cakes sinking?

[shelley72]

I have birthday cup cakes in the oven at the mo and they seem to be rising and overflowing. However usually once I take them out, they deflate and resemble a biscuit. where am I going wrong? Do I need to bake them longer?

What mix are you using?

Do you add baking powder?

Are you over filling the cases? I use an ice cream scoop of mix in a normal case and 1 and a half in a muffin case.

Cook for 15 mins 150 degrees in an elec fan oven.

It might be that the temperature is too high so the mixture cooks on the outside but stays raw in the middle - this causes cakes to collapse as they cool. Cut them open and you'll see a denser stodgy bit in the middle if that's what's happened

Too much raising agent usually causes this. What recipe are you using?

Hi I was using a lorraine pascal recipe - 7 oz each of plain flour, butter, sugar; 4 eggs, vanilla and 2 tsp of baking powder. All ingredients were freshly bought. I had large cup cake cases so used one ice cream scoop and a bit. Maybe it was the baking powder? The cakes were cooked in the middle.
I so want to be good at baking but I think the gene had passed me by

That sounds like quite a lot of baking powder to me, but I'm no expert.

I do know that you should never open the oven door until you can smell the cake, and I usually leave it a minute or two then, until the smell is really strong.

How did they come out?

If you're doing a cake rather than cupcakes, another tip is to line your tin making the sides much higher. That encourages it to rise.

If it's the first time you've used that recipe it could be just trial and error with your oven/temp.

oooh jux loving your "smells right" method of testing if a cake is done!

You're right as well! I always forget to put the timer on then suddenly am hailed to the kitchen by delicious aromas from the oven, rush back in in a panic to discover the cakes are jut right

OP that's no help is it! but I always use SR flour not plain as there's no issue then with overdoing the baking powder.

Yes too much baking powder I would think. Also try turning the temp down and increasing the cooking time so that they rise more slowly and the middles have chance to cook properly at the same rate as the tops.

Far too much baking powder and I would say you're overfilling them.

Also, how are you incorporating your flour ? If your over folding this will also cause the cakes to shrink on cooling

Agree, it sounds like a lot of raising agent, and if you open the oven before they are 3/4 done the it can cause them to collapse