For the love of baking - Kitchenaid - what am I doing wrong??

[AntsDeck]

Please help me!

Lucky enough to get a Kitchenaid last week. The first thing I tried making was a coffee sponge cake, recipe from BBC Food website. Disaster the mixture seemed to curdle when I put the beaten eggs in, even though I added flour with each time I added them, which I also did slowly. It appeared a bit better when I had added the rest of the flour, so I baked it. It turned out a bit dense and flat. I used the beater tool for this one.

Today, I have followed a Kitchenaid recipe, from the official site, which said to use the whisk attachment. It looked like the eggs curdled again, despite them being room temperature and were added with all of the flour, as instructed. Again, it seemed a bit better, so I baked it. This one has also come out flat and dense and is not like when I have made cakes in the past just using an electric hand mixer. It does not seem to have risen much or to be a big cake, despite using 4 eggs and 225g of flour, sugar and butter.

Where am I going wrong? Does anyone also have an idiot proof recipe they can point me in the right direction of please?

I just want to make a nice cake

TIA

Did you cream the sugar and butter really, really well? If so maybe just mix very briefly for each egg and a bit more of a mix with the rest of the flour? I've not got a Kitchenaid, but a Kenwood chef.

Eggs. Weigh them in their shells and use the same amount of butter and sugar.

Curdling is usually because the eggs are too cold or because of overmixing.

Thank you both so much for replying.

I didn't over-mix as far as I know today, as I did it for the exact length of time the KA recipe said. The eggs were room temperature too.

With those quantities it works best in 2 x 8 inch cake tins.

Why not try an all in one method sponge? Butter, sugar, SR flour + baking powder and then the eggs (same weight as other ingredients). If you beat it altogether the eggs shouldn't curdle.

@Xmasbaby11 I used 7" ones but they were still flat and dense

@bilbodog do I weigh all of the eggs and use the same weight of flour, same of butter and same as sugar? So if three eggs weighed 100g I use 100g of each of the other ingredients?

Really appreciate your help everyone

Hi, yes. My standard victoria sponge is usually 250g of everything and 4 eggs + 1 tsp baking powder. Might depend on size of your tins. Check out a recipe by either delia smith or mary berry and see what quantities they use vs which size cake tin. My cakes are normally quite big - because we are piggies here!!

@bilbodog Oh my! That looks amazing and is what I want mine to look like too

That is disappointing. I bake a lot and it's not obvious what's gone wrong.

Do cakes normally rise in your oven?

Did the recipe have baking powder added? It is generally needed as well as s r flour.

@Xmasbaby11 it really is so disappointing. It looks so easy on Bake Off my oven has always made cakes rise and the only difference is the mixer I am using.

I will try again and will add baking powder too - although the recipe didn't call for it and I added it to the one last week.

Any idea whether I would use the beater or whisk to do the all in one method please?

Thanks again for your help - I really appreciate you taking the time

Always the beater. The whisk is just for egg whites etc. Although to be fair it shouldn't make that much difference!

@PamDemic thank you for that. Last week the eggs and butter were straight out of the fridge and today just the eggs were at room temp, so I will try again with all of the suggestions.

Fingers crossed and if it works, I will take a pic and come back to show you

For the butter, I think room temp is too cold at this time of year - our butter is v hard straight from the butter dish. I always soften it in the microwave so it can be beaten more easily.

@Xmasbaby11 thank you - that's a great tip x

I would always use the beater rather than the whisk!

@BananaHammock23 that's what I thought but the KA recipe said to use the whisk one

I bought a beater with a silicone scraper down one side it’s much better than the one provided.

Room temp butter and eggs are essential. Beating sugar and butter until really fluffy before adding anything else usually works.

Butter needs to be soft to start with, but not melted in anyway so be careful of using the microwave.

Beat sugar and butter together, for longer than you think, at least à minute with the beater if not longer.

Eggs at room temp, and slightly beaten with a fork before adding bit by bit. Keep n
Beating between adding eggs.

Fold in the flour. Do not use the beater to mix in the flour.

Hth.

I beat the life out of the butter and sugar until it's really light and pale and fluffy. I whisk the eggs by hand before adding. I don't tend to have the patience to add them but by bit and tend to put everything in in quick succession. I find cakes that use plain flour and baking powder and sometimes bicarbonate top rise better than using self raising flour. My butter and eggs are always room temperature. And I use proper block butter. Tim size is important. Check it's not too big. I find that anything that looks less than ideal looks amazing when frosted serving as a pudding with custard works too!

An oven thermometer is a good idea just to check your oven is accurate. Mine is great for chips and pizzas but fir bread and cakes I use an oven thermometer as the thermostat is way out. The dial on the cooker says 150 and it's actually 200.

Am I reading right that your butter was just out of the fridge and hadn't been softened?

If so, that's what's wrong.

Sometimes (as my dd has shown me when she insists on baking but has forgotten to leave butter out) with cold butter you can get a mixture that looks sort of right, but it rarely bakes well.

I was really disappointed with the first couple of cakes I did in my KitchenAid. They were standard recipes I used to do all the time but I had the same flat, dense experience. I persevered and am happy with it now. Trying to think what I started to do differently - I probably let them mix for longer now, I think you'd have to go some to over mix.
It's great for bread and even mashed potato. It's worth it to me for that alone.

@SmartPinkShoes yes, the butter was straight out of the fridge so I won't do that again

@starlingsintheslipstream thank you - that is encouraging