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

Thank you so much everyone - I knew wise MN wouldn't let me down

OP - I have a Kitchenaid mixer and can make sponges for the first time in my life! I use Mary Berry's all in one recipe for a Victoria sponge and the beater tool (not the whisk or the one with the scraping blade on it). I found the recipe courtesy of Google. Think it's on the BBC Good Food pages. My only recommendation (passed on from my mum) is to use Stork for the butter, preferably the soft one for a sponge. Hope your next attempt comes out better

Hi @AntsDeck, I always use the beater attachment for cakes and do as follows and never had an issue:

• always keep on lowest setting when adding an incredient then build up
• cream butter and sugar for longer than you think as pp said, i usually leave it mixing for a good few mins while I prep other stuff. You can go pretty fast on the settings.
• add eggs 1 at a time and wait until the first is fully incorporated before adding more. I go up to around setting 4 to beat the eggs in but not higher.
• gently fold in the flour using level 1 only and not for too long.

Don’t be disheartened by your expensive purchase, it just takes a bit of practice. I had some disasters when first trying to do mayonnaise in it with all ingredients in 1 go. Would probably ignore their recipe books too and just use normal recipes.

OP - I have a Kitchenaid mixer and can make sponges for the first time in my life! I use Mary Berry's all in one recipe for a Victoria sponge and the beater tool (not the whisk or the one with the scraping blade on it). I found the recipe courtesy of Google. Think it's on the BBC Good Food pages. My only recommendation (passed on from my mum) is to use Stork for the butter, preferably the soft one for a sponge. Hope your next attempt comes out better

@Justlovedogs and @maradesbois thank you both - that is also very helpful advice.

Thank you everyone for being so kind x

I agree - use baking block (Stork or own brand) - makes lighter cakes and you only need to get it out of fridge 5 min beforehand.

Use flat beater, not whisk. Beat fat and sugar on high speed for a few minutes until light colour, then add one egg, beat on low speed until just combined (10 secs), add a spoon of flour and the next egg and repeat until all in. If it starts to split, stop and add more flour. Add rest of flour in 2/3 batches, mixing on slow for a few secs each time or fold in by hand.

I add baking powder every time even if not in recipe - half a teaspoon per 2eggs usually. I'd put 4 egg cake into two tins.

Thank you @UniversalTruth for that - really helpful advice too.

I promise I will come back and let you all know how I get on with the next one

Hello all,

As promised, I said I would come back to show you once I had made another attempt, taking on board all of your kind advice.

Well, ta-dah!

That looks great! Thank you for coming back to the thread, really nice to see and now I want cake

@UniversalTruth Thank you 

Thank you to everyone for their help and @Justlovedogs I went with your suggestion of the all in one method and, as you can see it turned out great

Next week, I have promised to make a chocolate one - no stopping me now

I cannot tell you how happy I am to have finally made an edible cake - little things and all that