Fool proof cake.... mine NEVER rise!

[Ghoulette]

So I decided to give up on making cakes myself because they always turn out shit and just get a Betty Crocker cake mix. For all the good it did me I might as well have just done it myself as the cakes STILL didn't rise and I had to add butter, eggs and milk anyway (I thought you would just need to add milk - what's the point?).

Anyway, I want to give it one last shot before I give up completely. does anyone have a fool proof recipe and method for making a nice sponge that rises?

If it helps I now have a Gas oven (i'm not used to cooking with Gas either!)

Weigh your eggs in their shells. Then put them aside and weigh out the same amount of room temperature butter and sugar - so if eggs weigh 150g, you'd then get 150g sugar, 150g butter. Beat them together thoroughly, the longer you beat the paler and creamier it will get. Add 1 or 2 tsp vanilla flavouring. A handheld electric whisk would do. Sift in 150g self raising flour (or whatever your eggs weighed, key is for these weights to all be the same) and GENTLY add, don't beat anymore. Beat the eggs you weighed earlier separately and add them gradually to the butter, sugar and flour mix. Sometimes the mixture separates a bit no matter how gentle you are but it will be ok. Just don't mix too hard or too long or you'll get a denser, less risen cake. If the mix is a little thick, add a little milk until it's a good consistency.
Bake at gas mark 4 until a skewer in the middle comes out clean. Maybe check after 15 mins then every few mins. Should be ncie and soft, well risen sponge.

For two cakes maybe do three or four eggs. Long as you weigh them you can get the ratio right.

Janes patisserie recipes always work for me. Have you tried hers?

It helps enormously if you have decent cakes tins . At least 4cm deep , not the shallow ones .
WI Victoria Sponge Recipe -Best in 2 x 7”/18 cm size tins
weigh 3 eggs ( in the shell)
into a big bowl put in the SAME WEIGHT as the eggs of :-
self raising flour
caster sugar
soft margarine ( I use Flora buttery )
add 1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence ( not essential)
2 tablespoons of milk
and then the beaten eggs
Mix together well, until it is all smooth but don’t keep beating thinking it will help !
Split into 2 tins which have been well greased , ( I also put a circle of parchment paper on the bottom )
Bake in a pre heated oven at 180º /160º fan for approx 20- 25 minutes .
Check to see if they spring back when you press in gently., and should be golden brown . If it isn’t quite cooked , but looks a bit well done , pop a bit of greaseproof paper on top to stop more browning
Leave to cool .

You can do it in one very deep tin if wanted - increase cooking time to 40 minutes approx

It may well be your oven if you have problems - they very rarely run at the temp as they say ( Mine runs a bit slow , so I do 170º on fan for example .)

If lots of recipes haven't worked, it might be an oven problem. I would get an oven thermometer (they are pretty cheap and you can usually get them in a supermarket) and just check that the actual temperature inside the oven is the same as what you think it should be according to the knob. You might need to do some tweaking if your oven runs slightly hotter or cooler.

I'm not sure how you managed to get a packet cake mix to go wrong...did you preheat the oven? Also, the rising agent (baking powder) is activated by water, so once it gets wet you need to get it into a hot oven as soon as possible. If it sits then you'll not get as good a rise.

Use this flour or similar instead of regular self raising. Gives a fantastic rise as you can see on this chocolate cherry cake I made. Mine never got a great rise either before I discovered this flour.

May I have the recipe for that @CatherineCawood
It looks magnificent!

@Ihopeyourcakeisshit your user name

It was just a standard sponge recipe with some of the flour swapped for dark cocoa. I used bourneville. Like PP I weigh the eggs and go from there. This was a 5 egg mix I think split into two 8 inch tins.

The middle is just plain whipped cream, unsweetened.

The cherries are called Amarena cherries and come in a syrup. I got them from Lidl when it was Italian week a month or so back. I couldn't leave them alone they were sooooo good. I brushed both cakes with the syrup as the cooled down.

My DS and DH apparently don't like cherries (weirdos) so I had to eat the entire thing myself! DD buggered off to uni otherwise she may have helped me out! What a burden. I did freeze it in slices and am working my way through it slice by slice!

I imagine you can get the cherries elsewhere as I doubt Lidl will have any left as it was about 4 weeks ago or so.

Here are some cherries from Ocado. £8.70!!!! I did NOT pay £8.70 at Lidl!!

Try Biscoff cake, only 3 ingredients.
www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/food/recipes/a26943194/biscoff-traybake/

Wrights baking mix - you just add vegetable oil and water. Make sure your oven is hot enough, once cake is in do not open the oven door.

Also it is worth checking the temperature of the oven, I've only had gas once but it never felt as hot as a fan oven.

@CatherineCawood Thanks for that.
Yes I really need to name change for these threads

If you don’t bake very often could your baking powder have gone off? I don’t know whether that’s possible.

It could be your oven. I used to rent and the oven was a gas one. Cakes never rose in that.

Other than that, are you using baking powder as well as self raising flour? Make sure you don't open the oven until it's the end /very near the end. E.g if you need 35 mins in oven for a standard 8 inch vanilla sponge don't open the oven too check until 30 mins.

The old fashioned basic sponge recipe is equal weights of butter/stork, sugar and flour and half the number of eggs.

So if 6 ounces of everything it’s 3 eggs, 8 ounces is 4 eggs etc

Delia pioneered the all in one method - whack it all in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer till light and fluffy

It’s so idiot proof I wonder if you’ve got an oven issue. The problem with gas is that the temperature varies within the oven whereas an electric fan oven regulates the temp throughout

Exactly what @VanCleefArpels said. I add a teaspoon of baking powder in for luck. Foolproof. 180 in a fan oven