Please Help. Im New To Baking. Cake Edges Keep Going Hard
Baking By BabyBird21 Updated 23 Nov 2015 , 8:04am by Cakechick123
im new to baking.
i began baking cakes because my mum loves those Mr Kippling Manor House cakes and i wanted to make a home made one for her birthday.
I copied the Mary Berry Cut and Come Again cake. its basically a fruit cake, i use sultanas in it
I have baked about 7 so far and apart from the very 1st one i made, they have all come out hard and crust around the outside of the top and around the outside of the bottom, the sides (apart from the edges) are fine though, which i find weird
I have tried a few things to solve this problem myself, which are;
- I have turned the oven down to a lower temperature and baked for longer
- I have doubled up the baking paper that i line the tin sides and bottom with
- I have moved the cake lower down in the oven
- I also cover the top of the cake after about 30 minutes when the cake top starts to brown slightly
please can someone give me some advice that works. My mum is having to waste quite a bit of the cake as she cant eat the top and bottom edges.
Thank you so much
and despite all this, im still having the same issue
Baby Bird~~Welcome to the forum. Sorry you're having a problem. Since this is an international forum, many of the members from the USA will have zero idea what the heck a Mr Kippling Manor House cake is, let alone how to make one from scratch.
You may be best served to create a new thread with the same information, but a new title.
Example:
UK Bakers: Help with fruitcake-burned top/edges
Good luck!
I would suggest putting aluminum foil over the edges (shinny side out). Don't bake in a dark colored pan. The dark color absorbs more heat and can burn things. Shinny pans of a light color reflect back a lot of heat and therefore doesn't burn or burn as bad. You mentioned that you have tried cooking at a lower temp, but what about removing it earlier?
Robert
i cant take it out ealier as the middle is still uncooked. when i put a knife in to the centre it comes out really sticky and goo'ey.
and do you mean that i should wrap the foil around the OUTSIDE of the cake tin or that i should line the cake tin with foil
a fruit cake must bake for a long time, so the best is to protect the sides and the top. You must line you cake pan with two layers of baking paper and one layer of tin foil on the bottom and the sides . The foil must be the closest to the pan and the baking paper on the inside where the batter is going. You also place a layer of foil over the top for at least the 1st half of the baking time. Then remove the top foil and bake for the rest of the time uncovered. A fruit cake bakes low and slow, so I start baking at 160 deg C and then turn down 10 deg every 40 minutes. A round 8" cake should bake for about 3-3.5 hours. Test with a toothpick from about 3 hours. When done pour some brandy over the cake - don't remove from the pan and then place it back in the turned off oven. Leave it in there until the oven is completely cool. Don't remove it from the pan until the cake it totally cooled. This will prevent the sides from sloping. You can then "feed" it every 2 weeks with some more brandy. I find that baking 6 weeks before Christmas gives you the best cake.
Hope this helps you in your quest :)
I have just searched the Mary Berry recipe and I see its not really a fruit cake. I would follow the same steps with the lining of the pans and the foil over the top. Also try the reducing of the oven temp, I'm sure it will help your edges :)
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