Help! Advice needed about making cakes in a loaf tin!

[edwardcullensotherwoman]

I bought a loaf tin to make a birthday cake for ds, but suddenly ad an awful memory of making a sponge cake in a loaf tin about 14 years ago - it looked cooked but when I turned it out all the mixture poured out of the middle!
How can I avoid this happening again? DOes anyone have a recipe I can use or know how I should adapt the cooking time/temp/quantities of, say, a fairy cake recipe so it'll turn out right? thanks in advance

I would guess that cooking at a lower temp for longer would do the trick, and testing with a skewer before removing from oven.

Is it a sponge?

I would do a sponge in a loaf tin at 180 degrees and, as minky says, test with a skewer. They do firm up very quickly towards the end of the cooking time, so what is liquid batter one minute can be firm sponge the next.

I imagine you're going to ice it so if the outside burns you can just trim it anyway, it won't be visible?

I make a lemon cake in a loaf tin, which is 6oz marg and sugar, 2 eggs, 3 tbsp milk, 6 oz flour and rind of a lemon. Bake at GM4 for 30mins, then turn down to GM3 for 30mins (although mine is usually done a bit sooner). Pour juice of a lemon mixed with 1tbsp icing sugar over cake as soon as it comes out of oven.

I'm sure you could leave the lemon out or adapt it otherwise.

Thanks ladies, much appreciated. I will try it out tomorrow.
purple that recipe sounds lovely, thank you so much! do you use medium or large eggs?

Yes.
I use whatever size eggs I've got - which since I now buy a mixed box could be anything! Seems to work.

definitely lower temp and longer - it's a lot further to the middle than in a sandwich tin. And test it - small skewer is best - if it comes out clean, it's done.

purple i had to say - I made the cake adapting your recipe to vanilla instead of lemon - it's lush! chilled it overnight and it's perfect for icing now too. thank you again

You're very welcome. That recipe is one of the few things I appreciate my MIL for.

The recipe for Nigella's chocolate loaf cake is AMAZING - really rich fab cake here.

Heeka I am going to try that loaf cake this weekend, it looks lovely! I wander if it freezes... My lemon loaf cakes freezes really well.

Nigella's quadruple chocolate loaf is brilliant
My tip would be to use yoghurt instead of sour cream; it tastes just as good, but is not quite so naughty. (still pretty naughty though)

I made a ChocOrange loaf cake this week based on the recipe at MyDaddyCooks (His toddler helps make a Blueberry and Lemon cake). Adapted as I didn't have blueberries, or a lemon - so used orange zest, 1/2 squeeze of the orange to give a bit more flavour, some cocoa powder to make it a bit chocolate flavour. Then did an orange butter icing which didn't work very well... think citrus fruit juice in butter icing doesn't work. Probably would have been fine if just orange juice with icing sugar.

I find that with loaf cakes you should always test it and I tend to leave it in the over 5-10 mins or so longer than the recipe says... so 180°C / 350°F for about an hour.