Dede Wilson's White Chocolate Cake
Baking By fearlessbaker Updated 16 Jun 2006 , 7:34pm by fearlessbaker
Seems I am having trouble with this. If any one of you has made this I would appreciate some feedback. I made 4 six inch cakes and followed the instructions precisely. My oven temperature and my oven thermometer both registered the same. For the first two I used flour nails and the oven was set at 325. The cakes overflowed.
The second two, set at 350, no flower nails but baking strips instead and they overflowed more and the centers were raw after 30 mins. Is it just a matter of overfilling??? This has never happened to me. I have messed up pretty badly at times but this is a first. I emailed Dede and I wonder if she will answer. This could make me a convert to mix cakes. Must admit, I did try the white cake mix with the super enhanced this week and the smell of it just about did me in. It has this sort of saccarine(sp) smell that can't be mistaken. But it did come out level. Thanks for your suggestions.
I thought a few of you mentioned that you had this book so I was hoping to get some help. Anyway, I have posted the recipe below. Could it be that there is too much baking powder? I am going to try again. This time using a collar around the pan. I am also going to make Rose Birenbaums whiite whisper cake and compare the 2.
Disaster Cake Recipe
8 ounces white melted chocolate
2 cups cake flour sifted
1 tbls baking powder
1/2 t. salt
4 ounces butter
3/4 cups sugar
1 t vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2/3 cups milk
Anybody out there????
I'm looking at my copy of Wilsons book....she calls for unsifted cake flour...you may not be getting the proper measurement if you are sifting...use the fluff, scoop. level method.
The weight of the chocolate and proper measurement of flour may require a TBS of baking powder.
And she uses a 350 temp to bake these...
It may be that you are over-filling your pans. Although, 1 T is sort of high, I have found others calling for close to that amount. Food&Wine has one with 2.5 tsp, but most call for 1 tsp.
I would bake again with lesser amounts in each pan or collar your pans with parchment paper.
http://www.cakecentral.com/article43-Collaring-Your-Cake-Pans-Make-A-Deeper-Cake.html
Good luck Fearless. Remember, the mistakes make us a better baker, lol.
Thanks Rodney, Lo and behold, I was looking for your post! Doing research on the baking powder I found some even higher amounts but them some way low too and looking for collaring instructions. If you hadn't posted me I was going to pm you again and beg for help. Thanks so much for the link.
IHATEFONDNAT, Thanks for responding. If you read on you will see that her instructions call for sifting everything.
Yes..you sift after everything is measured....if you sifted according to her instructions you should have had the proper measurement.
I used to sift everything before I measured..and learned a hard lesson. 
IHATEFONDANT, Yes, after is what I did. Sometime you are supposed to sift first as in some of Rose Birenbaums recipes. Anyway, after the last post I took out a little of the baking soda and made collars. used both flower nails and strips. Another mess. This is the second cake I have attempted from this book. The essential white cake was very dry and then thise disastors. Quite an experiment. Now, its gardening time. Thanks for all of your help and suggestions.
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