Evening ladies (and gents!)

I'm beginning a Birthday cake for my mother, and have so far made a round lemon cake using the 'Durable 3D and Wedding cake' recipe. Usually I have no issues with this recipe, however the cake seemed determined not to bake in the centre, so to avoid it overcooking and going rock solid around the edges, I took it out of the oven after nearly 50 mins!

Anyway, this has now left me with some goop in the middle where it hasn't cooked through. I have now scooped said goop out, and am now thinking of simply cutting the entire centre out to leave a ring of cake- and this is where I need some suggestions.

Does anyone have any ideas for what I could do to fill or otherwise deal with the hole in the centre? This will be the top of a 2 tier cake.

Thanks in advance!!

Just curious if you are on a time restraint? I personally would start over

Yes. Put a small vase in there after it is decorated and fill with real, or hand-made icing flowers on wires. Or put a small vase with a votive candle and work that into the theme

Adamsgama

Hi, sorry this happened. I personally would bake it over.

AnotherCreation- the cake needs to be ready for Friday (it's Tuesday evening in the UK right now). I COULD start over, but just thought it a shame to waste the cake, especially when I had to pay nearly double the price for the cake mix I used because it's specially imported!

adamsgama- thats a lovely idea! I may well have a hunt and see what vases I can find!

What size pan are you using? And what temp were you baking at?

Its an 8" fairly deep round pan, baking at 350 as per the recipe. The recipe states 30-35 mins but I've always needed to go to more like 45 mins.

I left the cake longer once before and although cooked beautifully in the centre, a large amount of the edge went rock solid as it was over cooked.

You could fill the middle with some sort of pudding or pie filling or mousse...?

Or make it into an ice cream cake...fill the middle with partially thawed ice cream....then freeze....then ice the entire thing in cool whip or stabilized whipped cream (preferably cool whip) and then you can pipe borders and stuff with the Cool Whip or stabilized whipped cream too....so it looks like cake...but when you serve it, it will be cake and ice cream!

Oh my,

Don't scoop......you may leave some raw dough behind. Start over, but before you do, check your oven temp to make sure it is calibrated. Then use a heating core or flower nail to bake evenly. (And make sure you used all the ingredients and correct measurements. Oddly I have done that....... and it baked rock hard.)

You could fill the middle with some sort of pudding or pie filling or mousse...?

Or make it into an ice cream cake...fill the middle with partially thawed ice cream....then freeze....then ice the entire thing in cool whip or stabilized whipped cream (preferably cool whip) and then you can pipe borders and stuff with the Cool Whip or stabilized whipped cream too....so it looks like cake...but when you serve it, it will be cake and ice cream!

By fairly deep do you mean a 3 in deep pan? If so, that pan generally takes anywhere from 50-70 mins depending on how full you get it. I don't follow the time frames on recipes because it all depends on what size pans you are using and how deep they are.

If it is a deep pan like that bake at the lower temps, flower nail/heating core will help, because that will transfer heat to the center of the pan.

The pan is more than 3" deep I would say, so yes maybe baking longer would help. And I was also just thinking the flower nail trick may help next time!

The ice cream cake sounds like a tasty idea too- how do you stabilize whipped icing? Sorry I'm from the UK so cool whip is hard to come by!

Thank you all so much for your tips and ideas- next time, I swear I won't have this problem lol

I will try to post a photo when the cake is finished, although I seem to be having problems posting photos at the moment- they just keep coming up black!!

You can stablize whipping cream with gelatin for 2 cups whipping cream add 1 teaspoon gelatin soaked in 2 tablespoons cold water till soft then add to whipping cream and whip till soft peak. HTH

Thank you so much tiptop57- I will remember that one for future reference

Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to call this one a loss and start again- I just tried to cut out the entire centre of the cake (to take out any 'soggy' raw bits and leave a nice ring of cake) but the damn things has now split So, the remaining cooked cake will just have to be my snack whilst I work on a new cake!

Thank you again for all your ideas everyone- they sound like good inspiration for future caking anyway!