I finally got an answer, but it isn't going to help any of us. She stated that she was sorry I was having problems with the recipe, that the ingredient list was correct, that the cake recipe was based off of the cupcake recipe that was printed in 2011, and that without being in the kitchen with me when I was baking it she was unable to tell what may be going wrong with the recipe. So I guess what I'll do is maybe try the recipe again and see what happens. If it fails again, I guess it's a recipe I'll just toss and forget about. If someone else comes up with a remedy and posts it, maybe we can have success with the cake after that, but I don't think after this last try I'm going to waste any more ingredients on it if it doesn't work out. There are some recipes out there that just aren't meant to be and maybe this is going to be one of them. I'm not sure when I'll try it again, but I'll try to remember to post my results and go from there. I wish the rest of you luck if you continue to try the recipe as well.
Thanks for your investigations guys - I've been away on holiday and just caught up.
OK, just to make things interesting, I tried making Kara's "Perfect Vanilla Cake" this week, and the same thing happened with it! So it's not the specific recipe, it must be either something I'm doing, or something that doesn't translate across the pond. Any ideas?
I tried the vanilla cake earlier this week, and of the two tins (both of which were from the exact same batch of batter, baked in the same tins, in the same oven, on the same shelf, for the same length of time), one was cooked nicely and the other was gummy and weird inside.
I tried it again tonight, and both were appearing cooked through, but shrank in from the sides and were gummy in the middle when I torted them.
I'm really sad about this, as the one cake which worked was lovely.
Have you checked your oven temp with a thermometer? It may not be keeping the temp up consistently enough, hence the underdone middle. Do you have the same problem with other recipes too?
Sorry this is happening to you :(
I've not checked the oven temp, although I know it does cook cooler than it claims. I have no problem with my other recipes, all of which are UK recipes, except my chocolate cake, which is an oil based american cake. This got me thinking, might it be a difference in the butter?
not to chime in being too simplistic, but I think it could be the oven(like craftybanana said) or the leavening isn't good. A similar thing happened to us this past week, when I didn't have self-rising flour. I looked up how to make it and I used the last of my baking powder. The cake recipe is British so...we had cookies/biscuits lol! The kids loved it and I got more ideas to do the same with cookie dough lol!
I learned from another cookbook, that all recipes aren't good. When I looked at the recipe on the blog, I thought about the baking soda too...
Couldn't you turn any vanilla or white cake into a honey cake?
other honey cakes in the bloggisphere http://www.food.com/search/honey+cake+recipe
I'm pretty sure it's not the leavening as I'm well onto another tub now, and it's worked fine for all my other cakes. Again, with the oven temp, I don't see why that would only affect these two recipes and nothing else.
I've pretty much given up on the Honey Cake recipe, but I trust Kara to have a good recipe that works really well! I'd love to work out what is going wrong when I do it.
It may be that it just doesn't translate well over the pond then. Only other thing I can think of is that maybe you are at a higher altitude. Such as a recipe at sea level does different things when you're on a mountain.
It's probably not a difference in butter, we make both butter and oil cakes over here in America. If you want to measure the "American" way, get a set up dry measuring cups and scoop your flour into them then level it off. I've also heard that Aussie metric is different from UK metric too.
Since Kara has a crafty class, try sending her a pm on there and ask her if she has her stuff measured in grams (or whatever you use) so you can try it again. http://www.cakecentral.com/u/894961/KarasCoutureCakes
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