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I finally got hold of my friend who posted the recipe in her blog and told her about how bad the cake turned out to be.
Turns out she made a mistake while posting the ingredients. Apparently it was supposed to be baking powder and not baking soda. She did say she used a heating core to bake evenly which she didnt mention in the blog!!
I am never following her recipes anymore.
Is there any trusted place where I can look for cake recipes? I am done with people posting incorrect recipes adding hours of time to my baking time and wasting so many ingredients!!!
It's usually just easier to divide your batter between pans and cook them thinner than to mess with deeper pans and trying to cut them evenly in half. It's not really anymore work (other than clean up) to divide the batter up and factor the cooking time depending on any adjustments made to the pan size/depth from the original recipe.
Thanks Ozgal, this is actually my very first attempt at the layer cakes. So, I didnt know and trusted my friend when she said just buy a pan deep enough and cut it into half.
Anyway, I have a question, I do have 2 baking pans at home, the round 9'' by 1.5'' one's. But when I baked before, the cake has risen a bit. So, if I have to put two of those cakes together, will I gently scrape off the rise part before applying the filling followed by the top layer?
Quote:
Originally Posted by MisfitBanana
If you want a cake with three layers, you just bake three cakes. If you want a cake with six layers, you can bake three cakes and slice each layer in half.
For a two layer cake, you really need to bake two cakes. Your pan was too small, which is why it bubbled over. When you see cake makers splitting cakes, they're splitting a normal sized cake to make two small layers, not splitting a really thick cake to make two normal sized layers.
Thanks so much. I am still learning! I will remember to just bake 2 cakes if I want a layerd cake.
Quote:
Originally Posted by suzy_q2010
You have to remember that 3 cups refers to the total amount of batter, not just the flour. When you add the total ingredients, you have over 7.5 cups of batter. What pan did the recipe suggest using?
Actually, I didnt pay attention at all to this. thank you so much. Then the instructions said 3 cups, I just assumed it was everything togetehr which wil fit in a pan. I didnt know that when they say 3 cups, they actually mean, 3 cups of the completed batter (including milk/butter/sugar etc).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallybalt
All traditional two or three layer cake recipes I've ever baked have explicitly stated either two or three pans because you're baking two or three separate layers. The list of ingredients you provided looks standard for a typical two layer cake, which should be baked into two 9' pans.
As others have mentioned, it's too risky to bake one very thick single layer cake with the intention of turning it into a 2 or 3 layer cake.
I will say it's interesting your recipe called for baking soda. Most traditional layer cake recipes call for baking powder, not soda. I read somewhere that baking soda is only called for in recipes that include an acid, such as using buttermilk instead of milk, which is what most cakes use. Even if you do use baking soda, you really don't need more than 1/4 tsp of baking soda per cup of flour, so you added way too much baking soda.
The actual truth is that you don't need baking soda or powder for cake if you whip the butter/sugar/cream batter long enough before adding the flour/milk. The longer whipping time adds sufficient air to your cake and helps makes it fluffy. Then gently fold in the flour. You do not want to overheat the flour as that will toughen the cake.
Thanks so much again for explaining this to me. I really appreciate it. It was a learning experience. She was a new baker too and she completely messed uo with the instructions and I should have known better to follow a new bakers instructions!
Can you please suggest a place where I can look for cake recipes? I love baking and i want to progress into making 2 layer cakes from the single ones I have been doing all along.
here is the picture of the second cake I had made after my first disaster with layered cake.
the hand print is my DD's who is 2 years old. It was made for fathers day.
I finally got hold of my friend who posted the recipe in her blog and told her about how bad the cake turned out to be.
Turns out she made a mistake while posting the ingredients. Apparently it was supposed to be baking powder and not baking soda. She did say she used a heating core to bake evenly which she didnt mention in the blog!!
I am never following her recipes anymore.
Is there any trusted place where I can look for cake recipes? I am done with people posting incorrect recipes adding hours of time to my baking time and wasting so many ingredients!!!
The Joy of Cooking, Good Housekeeping, Betty Crocker, and Julia Child's cookbooks.
Thanks Ozgal, this is actually my very first attempt at the layer cakes. So, I didnt know and trusted my friend when she said just buy a pan deep enough and cut it into half.
Anyway, I have a question, I do have 2 baking pans at home, the round 9'' by 1.5'' one's. But when I baked before, the cake has risen a bit. So, if I have to put two of those cakes together, will I gently scrape off the rise part before applying the filling followed by the top layer?
It's okay. It's a learned skill so just keep on trying. You will be great at it before you know it!
Master a basic white/yellow cake first and then move on from there. Once you have that down, you can adapt the base as you go.
As for layering cakes, yeah, it's best to level them first by cutting off the tops. There are a number of ways to do it, but using a long thin bladed knife works best for me.
I use two (2) nine-inch aluminum cake pans, two inches high. I do not use non-stick. I butter and flour them, using pre-cut parchment rounds on the bottom.
Your pan was the wrong pan for a double layer cake.
Most double layer cakes are made in two separate pans. They are not baked in one high pan and then sliced in half. What you do find are people who bake a single layer and then slice that in half. But the single layer is not thick to begin with.
The higher the pan, the longer it takes to bake the interior/middle of the cake because it takes longer for the heat to penetrate the middle of the batter.
That's why bundt cake pans have a well in the middle.
People will use 6x3 pans for cheesecakes or other special cakes like fruitcakes that are often baked in a bain marie (which is basically a larger pot or pan of water and the moisture prevents the cake from burning).
I always bake my cake layers in 3" deep pans. I bake at 325 degrees and use several flower nails inside a large layer, and always at least one flower nail in a small layer. (you don't have to do any major patching when you use the flower nail, like you might with the heating core, and if I'm delivering assembled, I need the center of the cakes to be good and solid for the center dowel)
I split each of my 3" layers in half and add filling, so that I end up with four layers of cake with filling in between. I like my tiers to be nice and tall and the 3" pans are good for that.
Thanks Ozgal, this is actually my very first attempt at the layer cakes. So, I didnt know and trusted my friend when she said just buy a pan deep enough and cut it into half.
Anyway, I have a question, I do have 2 baking pans at home, the round 9'' by 1.5'' one's. But when I baked before, the cake has risen a bit. So, if I have to put two of those cakes together, will I gently scrape off the rise part before applying the filling followed by the top layer?
Thanks so much. I am still learning! I will remember to just bake 2 cakes if I want a layerd cake.
Actually, I didnt pay attention at all to this. thank you so much. Then the instructions said 3 cups, I just assumed it was everything togetehr which wil fit in a pan. I didnt know that when they say 3 cups, they actually mean, 3 cups of the completed batter (including milk/butter/sugar etc).
Thanks so much again for explaining this to me. I really appreciate it. It was a learning experience. She was a new baker too and she completely messed uo with the instructions and I should have known better to follow a new bakers instructions!
Can you please suggest a place where I can look for cake recipes? I love baking and i want to progress into making 2 layer cakes from the single ones I have been doing all along.
here is the picture of the second cake I had made after my first disaster with layered cake.
the hand print is my DD's who is 2 years old. It was made for fathers day. Attachment 131526
When you make the cakes and they have a curved top, just trim that part off. You can buy a tool to do it evenly. Small Cake Leveler - Wilton You can also split the layers with that tool by setting the height lower. Then you can put frosting in the middle. If you like to make cake balls, you can save the tops that you trim off the cake to make cake balls.
Using a flower nail as a heating core will help your cake bake with less of a curved top. Flower Nails - Wilton You just spray the pan with Baker's Joy, then spray the flower nail also and put it in the center of the pan, with the nail sticking up. When you pour the batter in, the nail may move, but just slide it back to the center. When your cake is done and you turn it onto a cooling rack, use a knife or a fork to lift the flower nail out. You'll have a very small hole through the cake which does not show when the cake is frosted.
Your cake is very cute! I love the handprint idea.
As far as recipes, I use box mixes with a few extra things added in. I do it that way because it gives me the same results every time, and I haven't had consistent results with the scratch recipes I've tried.
I find some of the best recipes to come from America's Test Kitchen. They test the recipes over and over again, and explain why some things work and others don't, so you know that if you follow their recipes, what you make will come out good.
Carole Walter, Great Cakes
Greg Patent, Baking in America
King Arthur Flour cookbooks
Joy of Cooking
Cook's Illustrated
Maida Heatter
Rose Levy Berenbaum
Not solely cake cookbooks but good cookbook authors with good baking recipes:
Ina Garten
Martha Stewart
Online:
Smitten Kitchen blog has quite a few excellent cake recipes.
Some people have suggested flower nails on this thread but I must admit to never hearing about it until this thread. I'm a very good baker who has been baking for decades and I read a lot of baking cookbooks and baking blogs, and pretty much everyone bakes layer cakes in separate layer pans. It's more reliable and easier when you're learning how to bake. When you double or triple the amount of cake batter into one large pan you change the baking dynamics in the oven and that's always risky and should only be attempted once you have a thorough understanding of baking. It is a science, after all.
I bake a lot of layer and bundt cakes but only recipes with at least hundreds (thousands are better) of rave reviews on allrecipes.com; I get the rest via Pinterest and baking/cake blogs. There are countless number of very serious cake pin boards on Pinterest cultivated by expert cake makers... reading about their experiences has bolstered my baking skills immensely.
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