This happened on Saturday night but I'm barely over it to write about it. Iagreed to do my neice's birthday cake. Pretty simple Strawberry Shortcake cake..like the one in the Wilton book. I decided to go scratch all the way. I've made scratch cakes before --for the house-- and all have turned out fine. This is not the case. I went through 5 cakes and all of them broke on me..to PIECES.... My husband said maybe they were to moist???? I left them cool just enough, like I always do, did nothing diffrent in cooling and taking the cake out. They all broke on me!!!! I finally had to use a box cake mix. No one could tell and they all loved it. I used a strawberry filling that I got of here. It really was frustrating. I dont know what happened. And now I'm about to give up on the whole scratch thing and stick to box mixes. I HATE THIS!!!!

So sorry that happened. It could be many things. Can you post the recipe, and we can figure out what happened?

Mike

Try tossing them in the freezer for 15 minutes to firm up. I do this with all my cakes.

Hmm... I do scratch cakes all the time and I can't recall having something like that happen to me (except if I didn't let it cool enough, which you said was not the cause)... I'm sorry this happened to you. If you've always done scratch cakes and it's just this time, I say DON'T give up. Maybe it has something to do with the ingredients (i.e., the eggs or the butter...).

I agree with Mike - it may be a recipe problem if you tried 5 times with the same results. Oven temp can do that to. I have a reliable thermometer in my oven - I never trust the temp on the front panel. Did you have parchment paper on the bottom of your pans?

I have never had this problem with scratch cakes. This is what I do. After the cake has cooled in the pan, I rap the cake in plastic rap for the night and put it in the fridge. It gives the cake time to rest and you won't have this problem!
Andrea

Sorry this happened.

I had a problem a couple of years ago that my first batch 1 of 3 cakes flopped, Second batch 1 of 2 cakes flopped and 3rd batch both flopped. I ended up having to make a different recipe. For my 8" round cake it was 1/2 original 1/2 other recipe. Not fun.

Never figured out what happened and I have not had any problems with that recipe since.

Maybe it was 1 of the ingredients or something.

Good Luck

Sorry to hear that. Could it be the weather is to blame? Maybe too humid? Can't think of anything else besides a recipe error right now.

So they broke once they were filled and decorated? Maybe there was too much filling? Usually when I have problems it is because I am overfilling between the layers, or because I was rushing and being a tad rough on the cakes when removing them from the pans.

Did they break when you were taking them out of the pan or while you were decorating them? If it was while decorating them, maybe you didn't leave enough time bewteen cooling and decorating. I always leave my sponge cakes for 12 hours before decorating so that they have time to stabilise and then I refridgerate them (and often freeze them) before decorating.

Or, your recipe might just be producing a too fragile cake. You could try a cake that produces a really sturdy cake and then work your way down to the more fragile scratch cakes as you get used to how to handle them?

Ditto on the wrap and fridge...

They broke after I had taken them out of the pan. I was about to crumb coat them and they broke in halves, fourths and thirds. I even tasted the cakes and they tasted really good. Here is the recipe that I use:

2 Sticks Butter, 3 C cake flour, 2 C Sugar, 1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 4 eggs, 1 3/4 C Buttermilk, 2 Tbsp vanilla.

Mix wet ingredients then add dry. Oven is preheated at 350. Bake about 25 minutes

It has been a little humid and hot but I'm in Austin so the weather changes all the time and this has never happened before.....

So sorry this happened to you.

This may sound crazy i had the same thing happen did you by chance use lowfat buttermilk anytime i have buttermilk in a recipe i sub sour cream because every buttermilk recipe i have tried falls apart i am in NC so the hummidity may have something to do with it as well

by the way, the recipe itself sounds very good. i use one almost the same and it turns out great. your recipe does call for more bm though. have you ever tried toba garrets moist yellow cake? it is listed on epicurious.com or you can google that title.

The recipe seems a little heavy on the Baking Powder. Did the baked cake have a very open crumb? If the cake is a over-risen that would make for a more fragile texture.

Also, it's a little strange to mix the wet ingredients and then add the dry. That's more like a muffin recipe than a cake recipe. Since cake flour is a low protein flour it makes a soft cake. By mixing the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients you don't really give the flour time to create the cake structure.

First I would try using a different method to mix the cake. I would cream the butter and sugar, add the eggs and vanilla, and then alternate adding the sifted dry ingredients and the buttermilk (scraping the bowl between additions).

If the cake still seems a little fragile, try reducing the baking powder to 1T, or even 2 teaspoons. HTH

TOMAY- I made sure that I used buttermilk. When I first made this recipe I didnt have buttermilk so I used reg. milk. It came out good, but the next day it tasted NOT COOKED. Then I went and bought Buttermilk and I could taste a world a diffrence. I maek sure I follow the recipe to the "T" now.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll be sure to try them the next time I try this recipe.

a tip concerning buttermilk... add one tb white vinegar to 1 cup milk (whole milk is best) and allow to sit for at least 5 minutes. it will work just as bm does. the ratios of leavening are affected by ingredients such as buttermilk, so if you leave out or substitute improperly, the recipe may flop.