Big cakes

[DanyellasDonkey]

At work people bring in huge cakes like Victoria sponge and chocolate cake. Both halves of my sponges together aren't as big as one half of these monsters. When i ask what their recipes are they say, "Oh I just use the Mary Berry recipe". I've tried this and mine are nothing like theirs.

Has anyone got a recipe that will make lovely big cakes like these please?

Do you find yours are heavier and theirs are lighter? How do you mix it? Manually? Hand whisk? Food processor?

Mine are light and tasty but just not big. I use 6 oz flour, margarine and sugar with 3 eggs and use a food processor

are you using the right tins and quantity of mix?

2/3/4 egg mix for a 6/7/8 inch tin.

They're probably doubling everything and using biggger tins. My mum does this. Her cakes are massive. Yum.

I use 1 egg for every 2oz of flour, sugar and butter. So for example 10oz of sugar/flour/butter = 5 eggs. You can make any amount of cake mixture using this ratio.
Try using bigger tins with more mixture.

I will give it a try at the weekend. Good excuse to make a cake - all in the name of research, of course!

I always use the WI recipe for nice deep sponges

for 2 x 7” cake tins 170º fan 20-25 minutes

3 large eggs - weigh with shells on
same weight of:-
self raising flour
caster sugar
butter/soft margarine
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons milk

I rememner watching BBO and their big cakes were flat on top after getting out of the oven.
What is the secret of making sure that you get them flat every time?

This recipe makes a fantastic big cake. I split it over 4 tins to make a 4 layer cake which looks much more impressive for birthdays etc than 2 layers.

www.nigella.com/recipes/chocolate-fudge-cake

flat cakes....make sure oven is not too hot and I find that lining the tins on the sides means the cake rises better
..like a souffle ....instead of rising up to the edge of the tin and then doming, they rise up straighter.

Do you sift the flour? Also make sure that your flour and baking powder are not too old.

You could also try unsalted butter instead of margarine.