So, I'm excited about re-creating one of Debbie Brown's cakes. However, I also use her Maderia Sponge Cake recipe. I mixed it - it was almost as thick as cookie dough. Is that what it is supposed to look like? Very Thick! I went ahead and baked it and it smells O.K., but I'm not sure if it is right.

Does any one know? I need to carve and decorate this by 3:30 tomorrow.

Thank you!

Hi there, I've made and eaten many madeira cakes over the years. It does have a very close texture quite similar to pound cake. I don't recall the batter being at all like cookie dough even though it is a fairly low moisture cake. Once you start carving you will be able to at least taste it and check if you think it's going to be ok. If you need me to I can drive up to Edmond and take a look at it for you I only live in OKC!

Cheers and good luck,

Colleen

Colleen-
Thank you for offering to drive up, but I just got home from church and it's kind of late now. I'll give it a try-maybe it's fine and just something completely new for me. It will be an all nighter, time to get to work. Thank you for replying, I see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Toni

O.K., I tried the Maderia Cake - YUCK!!!!! NEVER AGAIN! That was the most disgusting cake (if you can call it cake), I have ever put in my mouth!
Now it's 1:40 a.m. and I'm waiting for MY chocolate cake to chill before cutting and carving. I've been working on many of the elements to this cake until now, but am at a stand still. Regardless of my sleep or not it has to be complete by 3:30 p.m.
This is being donated to a churches Fall Festival. I pray I can do this cake justice.

Later,
Toni

sorry...but i just saw your thread so i wasn't able to warn you soon enough.

i tried Debbie Brown's recipe for madeira cake and it was absolutely AWFUL!!

however, i realised on closer inspection of her recipe, she uses just butter, sugar, flour and eggs. there is no milk or flavouring in her recipe! no wonder it was so dry.

also, i realised that she uses what we know as the 1234 recipe:

1 cup of butter
2 cups sugar
3 cups flour (if you add the quantities for the 2 flours together)
4 eggs

so, try adding 2 tsps vanilla and 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk to the above. it should taste a lot better.

hopefully, someone else can confirm whether my suggested amount of buttermilk would affect the cake's ability to be carved. if it does, i would just use a pound cake recipe.

Hello.
I also recently bought one of Debbie Brown's books... I'd never heard of Mediera cake either. The batter was extremely thick, but baked up very firm and with little crumbling when carved. (weird taste even with flavor added though...)

However, I think I'm going to just use my sponge cake recipe from now on, because being vegan the ingredience (like soy butter, turbinado sugar, etc) made this cake very expensive to make... and that's just using the 8" pan. (Soy butter is almost $5.00 per lb right now!)

That said, it is a very stable cake. I was just shocked at how thick the batter was when I put it in the oven... almost like bread dough.

Good luck!!!

Thank you for your suggestions. I just couldn't believe how nasty it was. I could never send something that bad out to any one (family included) knowing I was the baker. Talk about someone complaining about the taste and texture!

Therefore, I'll try again when I'm not sending a cake out for someone else to eat.

I have a Debbie Brown book and I thought when I saw the recipe for the Madeira cake that it was sort of odd. I think that particular recipe is used so that the cake can be carved into the desired shapes and that they are actually sacrificing taste for design. Debbie Brown's cakes are works of art so in her case it's probably OK to do that, but I certainly would never do that myself.

Debbie Brown's Madeira is BAD! I use Lindy Smith's recipe with my own adjustments. It's lighter than DB's and moist!. Here's what I use:

This is 1 batch (will bake an 8x3in round).

12oz 80% fat margarine (this really does make a moister cake than butter!)
12oz fine sugar
1lb 2oz self-rising cake flour
6 extra large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp vanilla extract.

I've used this for stacking, 3D and carvings and it works fine.

Hope that helps!

Not dumb at all. In fact I convert all American recipes to weights because I believe in the science of baking and the US method of measures is just too inaccurate and variable IMO! I use this tool:

http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/cooking

I finished the cake, but without the Maderia Recipe. Here's the finished product. This is my version of Debbie Brown's Sunkin Treasure Ship. The lady who's donating it tonight loved it.


However, I really want to try the Maderia you ladies gave me - I'm just not feeling very confident about it. Thank you all for your help.

which recipe did you use?

My own chocolate cake, tried and true (nothing special, just a basic chocolate cake). Seriously, after that disaster of baking homemade cardboard, I'm not sure if I'll ever want to try a Maderia cake again.

I just wanted to go with something different. So, right now I'm trying a recipe from CC called Durable Cake for 3D and Wedding Cakes. It's almost done baking and it smells great. Wish I could remember who posted this.

Any way, this will be the Enchanted Tree by Debbie Brown. I'm donating it to my church tomorrow night - Fall Festival. I'll keep everyone posted on how well that cake does.

I'm back! I found the 3D and Wedding Cake recipe is by heartsfire. It is EXCELLENT!!!!! I will certainly repeat it again. I will also recommend it to any one who needs 3D cake advice.

As for my basic chocolate cake, I used dowels and a board about midway through the cake. The part that is layered different levels is supported. Other wise, no issues.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy heartsfire recipe as much as I did.

Thank you to everyone who responded to my plea.

Thanks for the recipe bonjovibabe, can't wait to try it fully agree with you on the weighing issue!