Entry for the Hill Show - Marble Cake

[Hazel at the Hill]

So my fellow grapes - as you know from the Abbey Crunch recipe, I'm more of a cookie gal than a proper cake baker, but needs must for the Hill Show at the weekend, so I gave the 'marble cake - recipe supplied' category a go - not terribly successfully, I'm afraid.

So in return for giving you a right good laaaaaaarf on my culinary efforts (photo below) can any of you bakers tell me how to cook marble cake mark II without the whacking great split over the top??

It was all going marvellously well - supplied recipe, correct tin, good mixture made THEN it went wrong in the cooking....it's supposed to have 1.5 hours at no.3, and I looked at it after and hour and 10mins and put foil on, but the damage had been done.

SO should I have covered it with foil from the off and taken it off for the last 10 mins to brown

OR

should I have made a good 'dent' in the centre of the mixture before putting it in the oven so that it didn't 'over rise' and crack?

All advice most gratefully recieved!

[Alice]

I hope it tasted good Hazel. I don't bake now (don't like cakes) so sorry I can't help with the problem.
I used to have a book (I think it came free courtesy of Stork Margarine - probably before you were born - ) which had very excellent recipes, and more importantly, a section which explained what could go wrong, and why. I'm sure some Grape can tell you what happened to your cake.

[vertangie]

Cake making tips

I'm not an expert cake maker, but I'm a science chic so to speak.

Can you give me a link to the recipe so I can look at the exact mix of ingredients and then I can help more.

Often mixes with egg in them split on cooling and the way to avoid that is to leave the oven door open and let it cool in the oven for an hour so it doesn't have a sudden temperature change (this is particularly good tip for egg custard tarts that don't have any cornflower in them).

I would put foil on after about 10 mins and then taken it off for the last half an four for a fruit cake style mix ie a dense mix.

Do you know what the exact temperature in your oven actually is. they can vary massively. You can get thermometers that you put in the oven and go by that, I bought one a few years ago for about £4 and it was money well spent. I also bought one of those meat thermometers that you stick in meat when your roasting it I now always get my meat perfectly cooked. I don't know how people live without them.

But seriously post a link to the recipe or give me the ingredients list and I'll look up cakes in my Pru Leith cookery techniques book and see what it says.

I have a whole shelf of cook books and it's the only one I use nowadays, it's the book that al; the students doing her cookery course get and it's more about techniques than recipes. It's great.

[vertangie]

Having a closer look at the pic makes me think the oven was too hot.

[vertangie]

Took a bit to type up bit this knowledge is gold dust IMO so worth it, for the aformentioned pru lieth book:

This applies to cakes made with the creaming technique (ie beating eggs/sugar/flour) let me know if it's not that kind.

The cake has risen a little but has dense havey texture:

The eggs were added too qulcky and the mixture has curdled.
The mixture was over folded whe the flour was added.

The cake is flat and dense:
no (or not enough) raising agent was included in the mixture.

The cake has tiny holes on the surface:
the cake was not put into the oven quickly enough.
the oven temperature was too low

The base and side of the cake are damp and soggy:
The cake was left in the tim to cool

The cake is domed/craked in the center.
The oven temperature was too high
The tin sixe was too small
Too much raising agent was used.

The cake has sunck in the middle
The cake was underbaked
The oven door was opened before the cake was set

The edge of the cake are thick and crunchy
Too much oil was used to coat the tin

[wellie]

Oh Hazel, I have tears streaming down my cheeks.... Did Oli sit on it?!

No, seriously, I normally make a 'dent' in the top of the cake mixture, as that's happened many a time to me too. Also, try not to open the door before the cooking time's up. As long as you have heated your oven to the correct temperature for half hour before the cake goes in, it should be ready bang on when the recipe says so. And usually the cake should be in the middle of the oven, not on the top shelf.

That's all I can offer, I'm afraid, and I shall check back with you later for Mark II Perfect Cat Cushion....?

[Hazel at the Hill]

Here you go vertangie, a link to the recipe - the recipe is after class 72 so you have to scroll down a bit.

http://www.judebolton.plus.com/2007showschedule.htm

Looks pretty standard creamed cake recipe, except you add 7fl oz milk AFTER you fold in the flour. Anyway, the mixture looked ok in the bowl (and tasty too....) but I know that my oven is prone to cook a bit warm so I suspect it's it the cooking. I do have an oven thermometer so I will make absolutely sure that the temp is right, and that the cake is in the middle not the top of the oven. If I use foil as you suggest, I'll have to open the oven door twice to put it on and take it off

The pru leith info is very useful - thank you for posting it.

So, it's another go at it tonight with Wellie's DENT in the middle, rigorous checking of temp, foil on after 10mins and off for the last half hour.....

[Hazel at the Hill]

It's looks great inside, texture fabulous - tho' I'll '2-tone' it a bit better on the next one..........

[vertangie]

Maybe not put the foil on after 10 mins after further thought as it's a bit of a sloppy recipe.

I'd go with checking the temp carefully before putting cake it and putting foil on after the cake has set, ie after it's stopped rising.

Dent in the middle sounds like a good idea too.

HTH

Angie

[wellie]

I've just telephoned Elderly Next Door's daughter, who makes THE best cakes in the entire world, and she says that if the supplied recipe is an OLD recipe it would not be suitable for baking in a fan-assisted oven, because they weren't invented then, and therefore you'll need to bake your cake at 20 degrees lower than the temperature you were given. Her diagnosis of your cracked crust is that your oven is too hot.

[Hazel at the Hill]

Ok peeps - we are getting a consencus (sp?) here - oven tooo hot. Now I don't have a noo fangled fan oven so what I'm going to do in a mo is put the oven on with the temp thingie on the middle shelf, leave for half an hour and look at what it says - then once I've found the conversion chart that tells me what those degrees are in old money, I will know exactly where I am. I think.

So my only dither now is if the temp is spot on, do I just bung the cake in for the full hour and a half (have faith, Haze!) Or do I peek after - say - an hour and 15mins to see if it needs foil on....??

[wellie]

If temperature indicator matches the recipe temperature, make a dent in the middle of the cake mixture, put a sheet of Greaseproof (not foil) over, bung in on miggle shelf, and peek after an hour & 15. Remove greaseproof then if you want it browner, and shut the oven door real gentle, and remove at the correct time, would be my advice.

[moggssue]

Sorry to come into this a bit late, but I would say open & close the oven door as little and as gently as possible so as not to disturb the temp inside or cause a draft. Good luck with mark 3 Hazel!!

[Hazel at the Hill]

moggsue, you are just in time!

I did a test of the oven temp at lunchtime, and to get the right temp for no.3, my dial was set to just under 2

Just out of interest, why do you say greaseproof & not foil, Wellie?

Also (WHY is this turned out to be so difficult!!), should I grease the greaseproof just in case top of the cake sticks to it?

[Snadger]

Looks fine and dandy to me Hazel!

The only time I ever tried using the oven I nearly blew the door off when I forgot about the chestnuts!!