What's new

pulsar101

New Member
I have found an absolutely delicious chocolate cake recipe which I'm sure a lot of you here already know about as its the normal betty crocker chocolate cake.

I made it once and Whole thing fell apart coming out of the tin. Must be very soft I thought, no matter just went and bought a tin that with a removable bottom. So that probelm was solved. Then I ended up with a cake that was just starting to get burnt on top the centre wasn't still gooey and not cook properly but it was simply delicious, ( perhaps not the safest idea having a part non cooked in a reciped with eggs)
I've tried lowering the heat a bit and putting it further down in the shelf. Last thing I tried was a less deep tin since my other one was pretty deep. and it cooked way faster then before in fact instead of the normal 40 to 45 it had a burnt top and edges by 30. And the centre STILL was raw
clear.png


I'm not really sure what I'm doing wrong :S
 
Hi Pulsar,

From the sounds of it you are using a packet mix betty crocker recipe. I usually bake cakes from scratch, however, reading from your results I can offer you the following advice.

If a cake falls apart it suggests that it hasn't bound properly in the mixing process or you have tried to remove it from the tin too soon after baking. Always make sure you use eggs at room temperature too. Once baked cakes should always be left to sit on the side and cool first thus shrinking away from the side of the tin and allowing the cake to come out easily. This should then be placed on a wire rack to cool fully.

If a cake is in a deep tin say between 2-3 inches deep then you should always lower the temp but cook it for longer, the burning on the top and sides suggests quick baking but not enough time to actually cook fully through. I always place cakes in the centre of the oven. For a deep tin I usually bake a cake on 150-160°C in a fan assisted oven for about 45-50mins for a normal sponge or 60-75mins for a madeira which is a more dense cake, this allows the cake to bake slowly but will cook through properly. I'm not sure what temp you are using but what you could try is placing you cake batter into two sandwich tins and baking for approx 25 mins on about 175°C this may actually cook the cake properly albeit in two tins.

I do have recipes and tutorials for you to have a look at if you wish to bake from scratch in the tutorials section.

If you like Betty Crocker you could make your own sponge and then use her Double Choc frosting as the filling.
 
Actually I have been making them from scratch. I've got a big betty crocker cookbook. Falling apart problem seems to be solved by the new tin anyway. I've been mixing it in a big 1200w kenwood mixer so it gets mixed really well.
The cakes meant to have some fudge frosting for it which is nice but not not too great so i've just been using the bought betty crocker icing for now until i master the cake itself
clear.png


I've been cooking it at 175 C in a fan forced oven I'll try 150 for longer (I do wonder if it could have anythhing to do with the 1 and a 1/4 cups of water it calls for as the only other cake sort of thing i've seen water in before was a self saucing chocolate pudding my mum used to make ( delicious) which was a VERY VERY runny pudding.

Not too keen on some of the packet mixes I was making the betty crocker choc chip cookies and I tried a packet one just to compare and was pleased to find it was nowhere near as nice
clear.png
:D


Cheers

Chris
 
Ah right, sorry I just assumed you were using a packet mix, 1 and 1/4 cups of water added to a cake mix does seem a little excessive. I have looked at the Betty Crocker website and there is a Best Chocolate cake with fudge frosting but that only uses 3/4 of a cup of water. If you wanted you could always try and reduce the water content slightly or add amounts in stages rather than all at once to see if this makes the batter less runny maybe.

If you are happy that the cake batter is coming out ok and your mixture is fully combined then I would reduce the temperature. When using a fan assisted oven you should always reduce the temperature stated by about 10-20°C as it cooks quicker than a regular oven. It is the same with all dense cakes, the outer edge bakes quicker leaving a raw inside. If you are going to reduce the temp cook for about 10-20 minutes longer but test with a skewer in the centre of the cake every five minutes to see if the cake has baked. If the skewer has gooey cake mix on leave to bake further, keep checking every five minutes and eventually the skewer will come out clean. If you are worried about drying the cake out you can place a water tray at the bottom of your oven to add extra moisture to the cake whilst baking thus preventing drying it out.
:wink:

 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top