Why does this keep happening?!

[Bakingdisaster]

Hi, I baked a cake today, and this is the texture, it is too moist/wet and rubbery.

What has caused this? I don't think I overmixed, and it was a vanilla cake with oil and buttermilk, so no butter/creaming.

Thank you @TheGriffle no I hadn't heard of that unless for a chocolate cake. I was suckered in by the good reviews !🤦‍♀️ How did of those people think it was amazing?

And thank you, I will try that, and mmm school cakes were the best.

all**

I use this when I'm making a plain cake. It's always a winner for us

All in One Vanilla Sponge

Did you test it with a skewer when you took it out? Sometimes mine look done but are still wet when I put a skewer in. Did one the other day with no liquid in at all and it needed an extra 10 mins cooking time.

Have you double checked your oven temperature with an oven thermometer.

My go to is this all in one method.
225g SR flour,
225g caster sugar
225g unsalted butter
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1tsp vanilla
Measure and put it all in a bowl, electric whisk until we'll combined and creamy,
Divide into 2x 8" cake tins
180oC 28-30 mins

I use Mary Berry's lemon drizzle try bake for all my birthday cakes. You can sub vanilla extract in the cake mix and obviously leave off the lemon topping but it's perfect every time. Also, have you checked your oven temperature? Mine is slightly off so an oven thermometer might be a useful few pounds invested.

Hi, Thank you all, I will check these recipes out. I do use an oven thermometer, because my oven has a dial so you cannot tell exactly what it is on, regret the day we bought it. The oven thermometer I use is the same one I use every time and has always been good.

Definitely a weird recipe, not enough eggs in for the ingredients. Ditch it, it's not you, I've made professional cakes and always use victoria sponge recipe, occasionally Madeira if needed lots of intricate carving.

I'm not good at many things but I make a mean Victoria sponge

Weigh 4 eggs.
Use the same weight in:
self raising flour
Butter
Sugar

1tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence

Cream butter and sugar, add vanilla really well.
Add eggs 1 at a time with a little sieved flour with each.
Add rest of flour and fold gently.
Bit of milk if mixture is too thick

Bake at 180, test with skewer around 20 minutes. Have to turn the cake half way through because my oven is duff.

Nice, light and fluffy but able to hold icing decorations.

To me there's a lot of wet ingredients compared to dry ones?
There's should be definitely more flour at least two cups?

Is your chocolate recipie an oil based one too?
I'd use that, and replace the cocoa with extra flour.

The cake looks undercooked.

What happened there?? Gif not supposed to be there! sorry.

I wonder if the author of that blog is baking at high altitude. That extra hot water (which I agree is odd in a vanilla sponge) makes me think she might be... maybe she is in Arizona/Colorado/parts of California - when you bake at higher altitudes, liquids evaporate faster so you need to add more than you would at or near sea level. I bake my cousin's birthday cake every year in their city which is at an altitude of 2,000 metres and after a few years of collapsing cakes using trusted reciepes I realised they all needed more liquid (also more eggs, less leavening and less fat and sugar) to taste and rise normally. So now I just use recipes designed for high altitude.

Tbh I'm an experienced baker and I do not use American baking recipes, the cup thing is ridiculous when we have scales. Maybe for cookies but not cakes

If I'm baking a birthday cake I make a maderia cake as it's more robust for icing etc.

I use this website

shewhobakes.co.uk/classic-birthday-cake-recipe/

I also agree with this. It's not just the bloody cups too but ways in which some of the standard ingredients are different in the UK/US - like the fat content of dairy products - which can totally skew results.

Thank you, I do agree that American cups are so variable, and inaccurate. I always convert the recipes to metric, or some recipes have the metric measurements also included. I do wonder about the conversion calculators used though, I have noticed differing amounts depending on which you use, and a difference in us/uk cups which may also affect things. I have some lovely American recipes, but they do tend to be for chocolate cake etc which must be more versatile, and again metric. The vanilla cakes seem temperamental and too sensitive to tiny factors, even when converted.
I managed to make a successful vanilla cake yesterday using an Aussie recipe 🎉🍰

I will definately try recipes included on this thread too, I love to try new ones!

This seems better than the last one!