The Taste Of Madeira Sponge Cake
Decorating By auntsushi Updated 18 Oct 2006 , 7:28pm by bouncyboing
I've heard alot about using madeira cake for 3D and sculpted cakes, but have never used it. I just got Debbie Brown's LOVABLE CHARACTER CAKES and see that she uses this cake all the time. She shows pictures of the cut out cake in her book, and I'll have to say............it looks like a cut up cellulose sponge - like one I'd use to wash the dishes !!!
Anyone know if it tastes any good ? I'd hate to spend endless hours making a beautiful cake and have it taste like cardboard (or worse!)
Thanks !!!
Maderia cake is a good tasting cake it sometimes isn;t as moist as alot of soft sponge cakes. But the reason you use it is because you need a firm cake to sculpt also one that has a good shelf life because alot of 3d cakes need to sit out a few days while pieces on them dry out.
So, let me clarify.........."her" recipe doesn't turn out very moist at all? I wonder if it HAS to be dense and "hard" in order to hold the shape of the design?
It'd be nice to hear from someone here that has alot of experience with 3D and sculpted cakes!
bump
I make a lot of sculpted and 3D cakes and I use a Victoria sandwich cake recipe. I find it is firm enough to sculpt - it tastes delicious, and it is moist.
If you freeze or refrigerate your cake before carving you will have no problems with crumbling.
Here is the recipe
4oz Self Raising Flour
4oz Sugar
4oz Butter or Margarine
2 eggs.
Throw the lot into a food processor or mixer and bake at 180deg for about 25 - 30 mins until golden coloured and firm to touch. The top should spring back when pressed and a skewer should come out clean.
This recipe can be doubled up as much as you want.
8oz flour
8oz sug
8oz marge
4 eggs
etc., etc.
Filled with jam and buttercream...........delicious.
I tried pound cake when we lived in Fl and, maybe it is my English taste buds, but I thought Victoria sandwich tastes much nicer than pound cake.
I also found Debbie Brown's recipe to be extremely dry. It did hold up to stacking marvelously, though! But even with a simple syrup soak it was kind of awful. It tasted rather like a bisquick shortcake, actually. Not bad, but it really wasn't what I expected from a birthday cake.
You're all wonderful to make these suggestions and that's one of the reasons I love CC 
.
I don't want to throw cold water on your party, but I would suggest that if you are curious as to how a cake tastes, give it a try for yourself or your family. You don't have to carve it or shape it, but just give the recipe a go and see if you like it ... does it taste like what you thought? Do you like it? Will it hold up to fondant/carving/shaping/etc.?
Seriously, I don't want anyone to think I'm Mrs. Negativity here 
, but everyone has different taste buds (i.e., cakesunlimited likes her English recipe better than a US poundcake even though they are pretty similar in formula). That's perfectly okay. I would still recommend that you try it for yourself first. If you don't like it, you can go to something else and chalk it up to an experience learned. And if you do like it 
, you can tell your customers how it tastes to you. I think they'll respect that you know how it tastes.
i made it a couple of times and gave it (didn't charge) to people that i knew would give me honest opinions on it. didn't go over well with any of the groups. it reminded me more of a scone vs. cake. the taste is pretty good, but it's just not what most of us american's picture when we think birthday cake it terms of texture and moistness.
Absolutely in agreement with the taste buds thing.
When we lived in Fl I actually bought the exact same sugarpaste [made by the same company] as the one I use in the UK - but it tasted completely different. Nowhere near as good as the taste in the UK - so how do you work that one out. Same with chocolate - over in the US Cadbury's chocolate, Kit-Kats, toffee crisps - all those english chocolates don't taste anything like they do over here. Very strange!!
I also agree when I saw the pic of the cake in Debbie Browns book I was horrified - yes it also reminded me of a bath sponge to look at.
If there is one thing I cannot stand it is a dry sponge cake. I was going to suggest a sugar syrup but again I don't think it would help that sponge at all.
I did use my Victoria sandwich recipe quite a lot over in Florida and I must admit everyone who tasted it said it was one of the best cakes they had ever tasted. In fact one customer who had had a cake for her dad's birthday called me to order a cake just for her kids as she said they didn't normally like cake but they loved it and wanted more, more, more
Am I ever glad I came upon this thread! I have Debbie Brown's 50 Easy Party Cakes book (I think that is the name 
), and I thought the cake looked a bit odd, but it seemed really easy to make so I was considering making it next time. I don't think so now!
One thing I have noticed from the cake books I do have, is how different our tastes must be in North America from how they are in Europe. In The Well Decorated Cake book by Toba Garrett, she often uses fruit cake, covered in marzipan and then iced in royal icing. I somehow think that would not go over as well as a chocolate layer cake with fudge buttercream in NA!
Absolutely - we found that on the whole 'the fruit cake' was a huge joke when we were in Fl. In fact some of the tv ads the Christmas when we were there had ice hockey teams using a fruit cake as the puck. And the feeling was 'if you don't like someone send them a fruit cake for Christmas. It really used to amuse us.
Also we found that in general most people had somehow got 'the wrong end of the stick' when it came to British fruit cake. Because the tradition is to keep the top tier of the cake for the first child's Christening [fruit cake having very good keeping quality and usually matures like good wine if kept correctly. But we remember one particular amusing story. Our friend who has a restaurant in Fl and who asked us to make a proper English fruit cake so that he could try it out on his customers. We were in the restaurant one evening when he was offering some of the cake to a table of diners. He said "you must try this cake it is 50 years old" [he had heard on the news that a piece of Edward and Mrs Simpson's wedding cake had been sold at auction for an awful lot of money - [but it would have been inedible but just a piece of history] and so he thought that all fruit cake was donkeys years old. You can imagine how many of his customers would even try it!!!!
Also on one episode of Seinfeld - Elaine is seen eating a piece of cake which Mr Peterman had bought which was supposed to be Edward and Mrs Simpsons cake - It is a huge wedge of sponge cake - and he says that it has been kept for 50[?] years in an english vault. We think this is hysterical every time we see it.
But to get back to the thread - no sponge cake would definitely be the preferred choice to most Americans over fruit cake.
Absolutely - we found that on the whole 'the fruit cake' was a huge joke when we were in Fl. In fact some of the tv ads the Christmas when we were there had ice hockey teams using a fruit cake as the puck. And the feeling was 'if you don't like someone send them a fruit cake for Christmas. It really used to amuse us.
Also we found that in general most people had somehow got 'the wrong end of the stick' when it came to British fruit cake. Because the tradition is to keep the top tier of the cake for the first child's Christening [fruit cake having very good keeping quality and usually matures like good wine if kept correctly.
I must be the "unusual American" because I love fruitcake (as does my husband), and have found that a really good one a) keeps really well; and b) is quite delicious if made properly. My research tells me that fruitcake covered in marzipan and then iced in royal icing was the norm prior to refrigeration as the tradition was that the top tier would be saved until the christening of the first child. Well, "back in the day", that would be a matter of 7-10 months generally, so a well-made and properly kept fruitcake fit the bill exactly.
Our American taste buds are a bit warped, though, in line with the rest of the world. When I was in Paris, the pastries all looked great! Problem was, none of the kids in our group cared for them, because they were "dull" ... actually, I thought they were quite delicious, but they weren't sweet enough to satisfy the teenagers' sweet tooths! These kids had been raised to believe that delicious desserts had to be drowning in sugary taste, but as a pastry person, I knew otherwise. That's why I say that it really is best for a cake person/pastry person to have tasted his/her recipe before selling it to others so you can answer the questions that will invariably come your way.
Odessa
I agree we all have diffeent tastes but I do not like heavy fruitcakes but I tell you what a good fruit cake with a cup of tea in the afternoon DELICIOUS. You just need the right chef......But I would always have preference for a good chocolate cake with lots of chocolate.
... I do not like heavy fruitcakes ...
I agree, LeeAnn, but I had found the perfect fruitcake recipe for my family. Made it back in '81/'82/'83 ... found in the Ladies Home Journal or Good Housekeeping magazine ... problem is, now I can't find my copy and I have been searching for the recipe for all these years -- 22+ to be exact!!! Have written both publications, but no response. Can't find the back issues, not even at local library, and that was before internet ... it was called Holiday Cherry Fruitcake, and was lighter and quite delicious. If anyone sees it, I need the recipe 
! Hubby has been asking for it every fall ("are you gonna make that great fruitcake THIS year???"). Probably thinks I didn't like it, but the reality is, I CAN'T FIND MY COPY! 
i feel like such a dork.
Hi
I have made debbie brown maderia sevral times and agree it is not the best tasting!
I came across this recipe on the British Sugarcarft Guild site and it is fantastic. However I am in UK and am aware that flour is different over here. Also measurements are by weight - not measured by volume (as I think american recipes are?). ANyway it is a great cake for carving and is moist.
High Density sponge
(8 inch round)
McDougalls Sponge flour (available at most supermarkets) 10 oz
Caster sugar 11 ¼ oz
Block marg (at room temp ie take out the fridge the day before) 10 oz Eggs 10 oz (approx 5 large eggs)
Water (Tablespoons) 2 ½
Set oven 150C
Place all sponge cake ingredients in a mixing bowl, mix on slow speed till there are no lumps of fat, mix on medium speed for two minutes, then full speed for a further minute.Spoon/pour the mixture into a 8round tin and bake for approx 1 hour 15 minutes or till cooked.Leave to cool on a cooling rack. NB this is for a fan assisted oven increase time by abut 15 mins if no fan assisted.
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