I'm trying to lock down a scratch recipe and looked into making this one.

2 1/4 cup cake flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 stick butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

The author says it is light and fluffy but sturdy enough for wedding cakes, but this thing turned out so soft, I can't even flip it without a using a kitchen utensil of some sort.

Any ideas on making it more sturdy? As far as the cake itself, it taste amazing, maybe a tad bit strong on the sugar side though, that would be one thing I changed in the recipe. But since I've never played with ingredients before, I wasn't sure what would need to be changed for structure. More eggs and less liquid maybe?

I am not some one who can adapt the science of ingredients, but I do however take a recipe and try adaptations, maybe sub sour cream for 1/2 the milk. It may be a bit dry, so brush with simple syrup.

add 1/2 cup regular flour, minus 1/4th cup of the sugar, add 1 egg yolk, unfortunately trial and error is the way to go, good luck

Good suggestions so far.

As for sour cream, does anyone know how it affects the cake "taste wise"

I also have read a little more and saw where some suggest jello pudding mix as well. It is hard to imagine how these 2 ingredients would affect the taste.

A side question (as me and my wife had a disagreement on this). What do you do with the cake after you make it and see it is not what you really wanted?

My suggestion was to throw it in the trash, as no one will want just "cake".

Her suggestion was to make buttercream and go ahead and take it to work so that we are not wasting money.

I felt that we are wasting more money (and time) by either making buttercream or buying icing and giving it to people just to eat. Why waste more money?

I couldn't get her to see my side, and I couldn't see hers. LOL

I am trying to really nail this down for my 2nd attempt as to not "waste" more money. I also am going to need to increase the size as it doesn't even fill 2 8x2 pans at all.

If you have no birds around, take it to work unfrosted, they will eat it or take it home and frost themselves, just put a sign saying , pls take and add frosting at home. On a side note, birds outside my home will not eat sweetened breads or any of my gluten free breads, lol

As for adding sour cream, I have done this before and the cake became denser, but I'm at a loss as to how to describe the taste change, since I usually just add half a cup of sour cream, the taste changes but barely discernible. by the way, if a recipe already calls for sour cream, I would not add any more to it. Let us know the end result,

Maybe letting the cake settle for 24 hours. The recipe I fallow is similar to that and the person who wrote it suggested leaving the cake to settle for 24 hours. It should be sturdy enough at that period.

Let it rest overnight and pop it in the freezer. If it's frozen or partially frozen you can handle it better.

I would reduce the baking powder by half and change the milk to buttermilk.

Ok going to try this.

3 cups cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk (dont have buttermilk, but would like to know the difference it would make. will research)
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick butter
1 1/2 cup sugar (because I'm adding more flour, overall the recipe would be lower in sugar)
4 eggs
1/4 cup sour cream (would like to know the taste difference as well)

I did bring the cake to work without icing or anything, and the comment I received was "taste like pound cake". Now that isn't a bad thing, as they loved the cake, but after looking up pound cake recipes, I can't see where this is going to change. Pound cakes have sugar, and that is the dominate taste (to me) in this cake. But I do realize that sugar is a factor in making it moist, so in the end I wouldn't be completely against it "tasting" like pound cake as long as it isn't hard like pound cake. I'm wanting it to support fondant, not a train.

I think pound cake is terrible! I seriously lol'ed at the phrase of you wanting it to support fondant, not a train! When I see Buddy flopping 15 cakes on top of each other with no support and start carving, I shudder. Bleah.

But I too, want to know how it turns out.

Eggs and pudding mix do thicken up the batter a little. Pudding mix helps the taste, too- 4 eggs sounds plenty - but if you're having taste/moist problems, then I'd try adding some instant pudding mix to it.

I think wasc is horrible. It is wet and sour and weird. IMHO.

I don't have the perfect cake either. I love being able to throw a box plus a little extra together, but I would love to say "made from scratch"... The thing is, I have people who think box cakes are the anti-Christ buying cakes from me every month. I never said they were scratch, it never came up. But then when it did, I didn't want to embarrass them. And I feel bad, but I didn't tell them scratch, ever!! Now I feel it is an elephant on the room every time they get a cake. I would love good recipes that are as predictable as a mix!

Oh man this thing was horrible, LOL

It was the perfect STRUCTURE cake though. I could have tossed it in the air and flipped it a couple of times around my back.

Open to more advice or that recipe of your jgifford... haha. My wife is not liking me practicing over and over and throwing cakes in the trash.

going to have to spread this out.

I just add melted white almond bark (or chocolate chips) if I need a more dense cake without being dry. 6 to 8 oz.