why does this happen...

[Flowertop]

Have tried to make a raspberry cake from the good food mag. It asks that you cream the butter/sugar by electric whisk. Did this and then had to beat the eggs and milk in. The texture of the mixture was lumpy and had to throw away twice. Can anyone throw any light on this for me as now feeling a failure in the cake department.
thanks

yeah it does go a bit lumpy IME, it's fine, once you've beaten the flour in it should be fine

You should add the eggs and milk a VERY little bit at a time (a small spoonful) and then beat in each spoonful thoroughly, or else it curdles.

If it starts to curdle you can generally rescue it by putting in a spoonful of the flour (or flour + whatever) you were going to fold in after you'd mixed the butter/sugar/eggs/milk together and beating that in vigorously. Then go back to adding remaining eggs and milk a tiny bit at a time. This will make the cake not quite as light as it would otherwise have been, but generally perfectly acceptable.

or do what i do and chuck all the ingredients into the mixer together and whiszz them up! works a treat

Ok that's great thanks for making it clearer. You would have thought the recipe would have said 'add a little at a time' particularly as it was supposed to be an 'easy' recipe.
I will try again.

If it does curdle again then just press ahead and finish it off -- it will generally turn out OK.