Hi all I am new here and desperately need help. I have made many (failed) attempts to make a cake with simple syrup. I brush on the syrup but it never seems to soak through far down enough. Can someone please HELP? How much is not enough, enough and too much?

The main reason that you would use simple syrup on your cake is to give it a little added flavor and help keep moisture in. It won`t be able to deeply moisten a dry cake because the amount of syrup you would have to add to the baked cake would weaken the structure.
A recipe that uses 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup flavoring should amply cover a 10" round. You might want to evaluate the recipe you are using and see if you could add something such as pudding mix to help with deep down moisture.

I have made recipes where the baked cake was poked with a skewer and a syrup was poured onto the cake. It did go down into the holes, but it weakend the structure of the cake so much that it would be fine in a single layer or possibly stacked as two 2-inch layers, but I wouldn`t want to be handling a cake any bigger than 10" using this method.

Thank you so much, I will try your suggestions and advise.

Zencakes
I use simple syrup exclusively for all my cakes...I use 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1/2 cup rum or other flavored alcohol for instance; mango, pineapple, coconut, etc. It depends on the flavor of the cake. or you can just use 1 cup of water.

I let the simple syrup reduce to almost 3/4 cup..cook slowly over low heat..I try to make it ahead of time, I want the simple syrup to be syrupy not watery. You might want to start make the syrup while the cake is baking..

Also, I apply the syrup with a brush, you don't want to soak it...and you can poke holes in the cake with a tooth pick. IMO the syrup gives added flavor. Sometimes I add 1/4 stick of unsalted butter.
HTH
Bonton

Bonton,

Thank you for your input. I used a cake recipe for a rum cake, but did not add the simple syrup (mom doesn't like the "wet" effect) then she mentioned it was dry" ugh. Are there different recipes for each cake?

This reply might be very late, but I worked at a bakery and what they would do is throw the cake in the freezer for a while. This allows the cake to harden in order to be easier to decorate. Once it has been in the freezer it is easier to throw on simple syrup. The bread will absorb the moisture like nothing. Without weakening it.