Hey! I'm still learning this whole "scratch baking" science stuff . I've been reading through the RLB's cake bible and all these posts; they're so helpful!

Anyways, last weekend I did some baking to try out different recipes and practice with fondant. I was really excited to make Toba's Moist Yellow Cake, but it turned out like a shriveled up sponge! My other recipes turned out okay, so I know it was something I did with this one in particular! Too much sugar? Overbeating/not beating enough?

I'd like to know what I did wrong so it never happens again! I bought a kitchen scale this weekend, so now I can weigh the ingredients (no more "too much" of anything!).

Thanks for all your help!

Hi,
I had the same problem with Toba's cake until I picked up a scale at a garage sale. I think weighing it helps as I've not had any problems since. I don't know, I think my problem was I had too much sugar in it. HTH

Cake troubleshooting charts:

http://tinyurl.com/2p5bdu

http://tinyurl.com/32goqe

The crumb on your cake seems large, so it might have been overbeating.

Perhaps this article on rubbery cake will help:

http://www.ochef.com/625.htm

I don't know this recipe, so I'm only guessing based on the picture. Because of the large holes, it looks like maybe it rose too much and then collapsed. Is there baking powder/baking soda in the recipe? Too much leavener could cause the batter to spring up too much and then fall. If the cake has whipped egg whites as leavener, over beating the egg whites could cause the same thing to happen.

If it's a leavener problem, weighing the ingredients should definitely help.

From the pictures I would guess a leavener problem or too much sugar.