cakes not rising

[Gemizzel]

I am following the recipe but my cakes aren't rising like i would expect.. at all! :(
I have put it down to the eggs being too small so am going to add 1 to whatever the recipe states for all my cakes.
Does having too many eggs affect the flavour or the cake baking itself?
Thank you

I can't help as I have the same problem. I've just been blaming the oven....could it be eggs?

I had this problem, cleaned my oven and they have started rising again also bought new baking powder as mine was 2 yrs out of date!

the baking powder is new, the s.r flour is new so cant be those. I want to blame the eggs because I made a cake the other week that was fine! its always seems to be when i make victoria sponge.

also Can you whisk eggs too much before you put them in the mix?

I always use fan setting because my oven smokes on any other setting grrrrr im going to leave it to burn everything off this weekend with all the doors and windows open see if I can get rid of whatever is making it smoke.

Silly question but are the tins the right size for the recipe?

I used to moan about my cakes not rising before realising that I was baking them in too big a tin.

My sponge cakes never really rise. My mum tells it's because I beat it too much (I do tend to use an electric whisk). I haven't tried one since getting this advice though!

sorry if this is obv question but do you have the oven preheated to the correct temp before putting the cakes in? Put cakes in the middle of the oven with the door open for the absolute minimum time. Resist the temptation to open the door until the cake is looking done and you want to test the top for springiness/skewer test for moisture.

Rising depends on the little air pockets caused by getting as much air as poss into the mix - sifting flour, beating eggs etc, and then the raising agent working with that. Then as those little air pockets get hot, they expand causing the rising. Wrong start temp and too much opening of the door all cause the temp to drop and less rising.

Also, you say you have baking powder and sr flour. You should use one or the other, not both.

I don't think the eggs would make a massive difference as they are a binding agent for the ingredients, not so much a rising agent. But they do make a difference to the moistness when cooked.

However Mary Berry recommends weighing eggs, you could try that to make sure you have absolutely the right size?

I thought that too so changed to the smallest you can get.. still crud results!
Thanks for suggestion though! :)

Flibberty.. I don't open the door (made that mistake before) middle shelf and preheated.
I shall remove the baking powder as im using s.r but would that cause it to be flat?
Maybe I ought to check the temp of my oven? its not the best oven really but its not terrible.
The frustrating thing is that I made a different cake (easy vanilla cake from BBC Website) and it rose lovely

Put your recipe here. And the vanilla cake cos that sounds yummy.
We can compare them to see what the problem might be.

I will compare it with my bible - 1956 Good Housekeeping Compendium.

And Delia.

And Mary Berry.

I am wondering if you have too much raising agent in so that its getting overpuffed then sinking?

Its more important to get air into the cake before putting it into the oven than to put double the raising agent in. I wonder if one raising agent is somehow cancelling the other out?

I don't think the size of baking tin matters. Sometimes I do a sponge in a deeper 7" tin and it doubles in depth. Other times I want a bigger cake so I do it in a flat baking tray and although only half an inch of mix on the tray, it still doubles in height. Just does not look as risen, because the mix was shallower to start with.

Oh and are you really working hard with that wooden spoon to cream the butter and sugar at the start, it needs to go really soft and change to a much paler colour before its ready.

well last night I used my grandmas OOOLLLD recipe!

4oz butter
4oz sugar
2 eggs
4oz sr flour

25-30 mins @ 160deg fan.

I added 1tsp of baking powder.

I used my KA, sugar & butter in, let it cream. added whisked eggs gradually (maybe I over whisked these, they were quite frothy)
added the flour bit by bit and adjusted KA to lowest speed

Have tried the cake this morning and its really tasty, just a little flat.

Tbh the vanilla cake was really yummy to taste but it was very stodgy so I probably wouldn't make it again... Recipe Here