I made this cake

http://food52.com/recipes/1846-faulknerian-family-spice-cake-with-caramel-icing

and mindlessly decided to substitute self-rising flour for the AP.  (I have a 5lb bag of self-rising that is just past expiration and I want to use it up).  I have substituted self-rising flour for AP before without a problem, but clearly I didn't pay much attention to the amount of baking powder called for in the recipe.  SOOOOO....within a few minutes in the oven, the tube pan looked like an active volcano.   I grabbed a shallow pan and placed it under the cake pan, to catch the overflow, and I just let it bake.  I don't think it really lost that much batter...maybe a large cupcake's worth...that's about it.  And I had to add about 20 minutes or so to the total bake time to get it done.  It bubbled and gurgled for most of the first hour, and then settled back into the pan, and left a thick coating of batter all over the pan, and the top was covered with crusty parts that sort of fell back onto themselves.  Anyway, it had a nice brown top, very crusty/crunchy looking, when I took it out of the oven.  I broke off a piece, and it tasted amazing.  So I went ahead and transferred the cake to my cake carrier, and it broke apart since it was really stuck all over to the pan...and I was in a hurry - didn't wait for it to properly cool), but I didn't think it mattered since the top was already so screwed up.  :-)  I frosted it, and took it to work.  Well, that crusty.crunchy top was insanely yummy, with the caramel frosting.  The cake was denser that it should have been, but everyone was wowed by it...rave reviews. 

So now I'm wondering...how do I do that again...without it overflowing all over the place and making a mess?  I think the high amount of baking soda (from the flour) was also responsible for the nice crust.  Opinions?

I don't know how to recreate your accidental success :) but I loved reading your story. I love it when a mistake ends up making something just as good or even better than what you intended.
 

AI have had this happen with pound cake as well. Usually if you substitute self-rising flour for AP flour, you leave out the baking powder and/or baking soda (that's what my Mama always said). I actually love, love pound cake made with SR flour...the crumb, the crusty part...yum.

What I've done in the past when I wanted cake like that is to divide the batter into 2 bundt pans and bake them one at a time with a cookie sheet under them on the rack below, just for insurance in case that rises to much and spills over, but it doesn't overflow very often. I also start it baking while eating lunch or supper and then it comes out when ready for desert and we can eat it hot...yum!

AI agree with with ptanyer.....don't use baking powder/soda with SR flour, only AP.

You do know that the "ugly" cakes taste the best!! That's according to my #1 tester, my son.

I've never tried making a pound cake with SR but always wondered how it would taste.... Thanks for sharing. You helped me.

Happy Baking.

AI agree with with ptanyer.....don't use baking powder/soda with SR flour, only AP.

You do know that the "ugly" cakes taste the best!! That's according to my #1 tester, my son.

I've never tried making a pound cake with SR but always wondered how it would taste.... Thanks for sharing. You helped me.

Happy Baking.

Im assuming what you want is to make the same "mistake" with the recipe but not have the volcano in your oven :) If so use a bigger pan, this should prevent the cake from spilling over.

Or, if you don't have a larger pan, split it between 2 pans.

AEver since I read OP's post, I have been craving a "fallen" poundcake:). I woke up this morning and decided it was time to give in to craving and me a cake, but only after I had baked the other cakes I needed for this week. So I started refilling my sugar and flour canisters and getting organized. During this organization my DH said something that really ticked me off. I got distracted and continued getting ready to bake. Made the first cake batter and got ready to start on the next recipe and all of a sudden it struck me...did I put the wrong flour in the wrong canister??? So I looked up how to test the flour to see which was SR and which was AP, and yep, I had put the wrong flour in the canister. So dumped the flours into big bowls and switched them back to the right canisters. Finished all of my cakes and was ready to make MY fallen cake:). Mixed the recipe up using my poundcake recipe, but purposely used SR flour instead of AP and left out the salt, baking powder and baking soda. Divided the batter between 2 of my favorite Wilton bundt pans, set the timer and waited. Meantime, DH and I finally had a chance to talk about the comment that ticked me off and I told him about the flour mixup. He said he was sorry and we got past that issue. Time came to take the cakes out of the oven...I couldn't wait. Opened the oven and ooohhhh yeahhhhhhh...there they were....two fallen poundcakes...happy dance! Then it struck me, this was a great example of using the wrong flour in a recipe, and I called my DH into the kitchen and showed him the fallen cakes (trying very hard to keep a straight face...lol). He looked at the cakes, then looked at me and said "oh no" then "can we get a can of air and inflate them?" Oh my, I could control myself and burst into laughter and told him that I did this on purpose because that is my most favorite cake. Next words from him were "does that mean we can eat them, both of them? Yea baby, fallen pound cake for supper" with a huge grin on his face:D. So we had fallen poundcake for supper after they cooled a little bit and it was wonderful!!

Great crust and the cake crumb was so nice. I just had to share my story with all of you!

Have a good evening! Pam

Cute story!  I've never heard of anyone trying to make a "fallen cake" before, but now I know why one would do so!  I am getting ready to do the same thing...tonight. :-)
 

Just wanted to post back on this.  I've pretty much mastered this recipe as a "fallen cake", and I make it quite often.  My BF loves it!  Thought I would post a pic of the one I just made.  It's for work tomorrow.