Bah, why do my fairy cakes never work?!

[notamumyetbutoneday]

Grr, just made a batch of fairy cakes with yet again disappointing results. 5 year olds make these- where on earth am I going wrong?!

I followed the recipe to the letter. the raw cake mixture tasted delicious - they were chocolate ones.

But after having taken them out of the oven and let them cool- they are all cracked on the top, they havent risen at all so are the most shallow fairy cakes in the world and they have no flavour at all, even though the mixture was lovely!

Will someone please take pity on me and tell me where Im going wrong? The fairy cake is my nemesis!

First of all, buy or borrow an oven thermometer -- if your oven's shot, your cakes won't work. You do let the oven heat up first, don't you? And you do put the cakes into the oven as soon as they're ready, don't you?

Cheap flour is OK, but are you sieving it? Hold the sieve high up above the bowl, so the flour gets a good airing. remember, you want to incorporate lots of air into the mixture so the cakes rise. I always use baking powder, even with SR flour. But only as much as the recipe states; adding too much will, again, cause the cakes to fall.

Fourth, beat the crap out of the mixture with a food processor. Again, this is about getting air into the mixture. I follow Mary Berry's (queen of baking) advice and beat my cake mixture for a good 2-3 minutes on high speed.

Lastly, NEVER open the door until the cakes have passed their total cooking time! Cakes rising then falling often mean they've had a blast of cold air before they've properly "set" in the risen-up position.

I mean a food mixer, not a processor.

Fruit cakes are OK made with the wooden spoon method, but for a sponge I really think you need to use a mixer.

You're in good company, though: I watched the JK Rowling documentary and she made the flattest Victoria sponge cake I've ever seen.

Do check the oven, though. I couldn't bake at all until I got a new electric oven. Then after a few years my cakes stopped rising and it turned out that the heating element had gone.

now can someone tell me how to make flapjacks that don't just turn into crumbly, gooey muesli flakes?

Wow thank you all sooo much for your replies, I have printed this thread and am putting it in my recipe file!

I think going on the genereal consensus then, I'll use a food mixer next time.

Im definitely sieving the flour, and I preheat the oven, and put the mixture in as soon as its ready.

thats a good tip about not banging the oven door, i would never have thought of that.
I didn't really realise either that the point of mixing it is to get air into the mixture so probably im not mixing it for long enough either.

OK. Post-baking report as promised. Recipe here Note that these are American measurements, so you will have to convert to metric. Sorry!

Good, tasty cupcakes. Nice chocolately flavour and just-right texture. They rose quite well, but were rather pointy for my liking. That could be down to my fan oven and/or the temp being a bit high. I'm going to make another batch and lower the temp by 10% and see what happens.

I think it is a combo of no baking powder and too cool an oven. This always happens to me when the oven is not at the right temp (have a gas rayburn sigh)

Loving all the advice, cn't bake to save my arse. But don't have magi or whatever but do have this and this. can I use either of these for fairy cakes? Please?

Oh Kazbeth. That's amazing, I've posted that question a coupl eof times and nevr had your answser. You are officially a goddess!