Right, I need the ultimate chocolate cake and carrot cake recipes to make dd's birthday cakes.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Need recipes which will withstand being made in a BIG tin (12 inch square).

COV - if you're reading, any specific advice re the mixture quantity and cooking time necessary would be appreciated.

I also would ideally like it to be dairy free, so that I and one other guest can still have some, but am happy to just substitute Pure or Vitalite for any butter in the recipe.

Thanks.

birthday cakes ????

Want enough for us grown ups too, and hopefully quite a few child guests.

Mary Berry's carrot cake is nice but I put in a bit less spices for dc. I think you can google for it, the recipe is online I'm fairly sure

The Hairy bakers chocolate birthday cake with coke in is good. Recipe on the BBC Good Food website

delia's carrot cake is dairy-free, IIRC, and very nice. let me rummage for a link....

here you are. the topping's not dairy free, but we make the cake without any topping, and it's just as nice.

The bbc site had this which appears to be the right size, though I'm not sure what I could substitute for the soured cream. I couldn't find the hairy baker's one though cmot.

Will google for mary berry, but delia looks good if I can work out how to convert to monster size.

Hi! I have made this one from delia in an 8 inch square tin so you'd just have to increase by 50% and should be fine...

Oh yes, that Delia carot cake is very yummy. I make it with courgettes too - equally yummy (and handy for using up a summer glut).

I never bother with the topping either.

I'm sure you could fiddle around with the quantities to make a bigger cake.

Well that's 3 votes for the same delia recipe, so she's def a frontrunner!

KSal - I'd need to increase by more than 50%. The area of an 8x8 is 64, whereas the area of a 12x12 is 144, so I'd actually need to more than double the quantities.

I'm more worried that one this big will turn out burnt round the edges and uncooked in the middle. Maybe I should start a separate thread asking if anyone has successfully made a cake of this size .

odwam - you might get to taste the resulting cake, as it's for dd's party which you'll get an invite to in the morning!

Sounds good! I'll go anywhere for cake.

oh blimey.... how bad is my maths!!

CSWS - agree with you about just doubling the recipe. You could cook it on a lower temp for much longer (I reckon it will prob need over an hour) or you could make 2 cakes (unless you don't have 2 tins!)

An adapted version of Jeanette Orrey's Carrot Cake (the Dinner Lady, as endorsed by Jamie Oliver ). Her reciple book has scaled up quantities in it, so the recipes definitely work well in bigger volumes.

For a 12 inch square I'd go for the following quantities:

560g margarine
560g light muscavado sugar
8 eggs
500g SR flour
400g plain wholemeal flour
8 tsps baking powder
700g finely grated carrot (patted dry)
4 tsp vanilla extract
and EITHER 260ml apple juice OR juice and zest of 4 oranges
220g sultanas (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Grease and line tin
3. Cream together marg and sugar until light and fluffy
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time (if necessary with a spoon of SR flour in between each).
5. Fold in the rest of the flour, the baking powder, orange zest/juice or apple juice, grated carrot, vanilla and (optional)sultanas.
6. Spoon into the tin, level out the surface and bake in the oven until golden brown. A small one takes 45-50 minutes. With a 12 inch suare tin, I might cook the quantity in halves, to enable me to cook to more easily and ice though the centre afterwards. You'd need to take a judgement when you see the volume of batter. If there's way too much, just cook the res as cup cakes! Cooking time might not be entirely accurate because of the size of cake and variability of ovens, so keep a close eye on it and take if out when the centre becomes gently springy when touched gently with a finger. Watch out for the edges so that you don't overcook it and leave them dry.

It's lovely with an orange icing if you choose the orange option.

I haven't made a carrot cake this size, but have made two great chocolate cakes .

PS, the wholemeal flour is my adaptation, it can be made with just SR flour.

Thanks Grendle.

First attempt at choc cake is in the oven as I type. I used this recipe, doubled, and am cooking it at 125 degrees in fan oven (prof cake tin said to reduce temp by 10-15 degrees). It's been in for 50 mins now, and looks nearly ready.

Plan to ice using recipe from a rl friend.

Actually I have a question about whisking the egg whites which I wonder whether anyone on here can help with.

I put the 12 eggwhites into my kenwood chef thingy to whisk, and managed (after quite a while) to get them to form soft peaks, but then with the sugar in I couldn't get them to form stiff peaks. I was worried that I might overwhisk them, so gave up and used them as they were, which was slightly runnier than when they had formed soft peaks.

What did I do wrong? Should I have just carried on whisking further?

Cake is out of oven, cooling a little still in the tin. Hoping that I can take it out ok, as forgot to get greaseproof paper this morning. Tin does at least have loose base.

Well it's out - removed from tin fine.
Not risen much at all (maybe due to eggwhite prob?). Tastes nice, but not divine. Can tell it was made with almonds rather than flour imo. Will make choc icing tonight and see what it's like after that.
Dd has quite happily eaten a slice and asked for another of course!

Th jury is still out.

Do you know, I hadn't realised eggs were okay for dairy free people?
Am thinking of vegans....

Bit late here, sorry.

This is an easier (and still nice) choc cake, very easy to do dairy free.

You are right about the eggs, I think. They could have taken bit more whisking.