I love decorating cakes and have recently stepped out and want to get away from boxed cake mixes. I have made a few cakes but I have a huge very annoying and disappointing problem. My cakes are not fluffy. They don't seem to rise. All my cakes are dense and flat. I'm getting frustrated. I've looked at a ton of recipes and followed others with high ratings to the T. What could I possibly be doing wrong??!! My only thought is am I beating the eggs too much or too little? I only have a hand mixer right now, is that the issue? Please help me before I give up. I really want this to work. Its a lot of work to make a homemade cake to have it be a flat pound cake

Bumping   Sorry I’m a mix baker     Just bumping this up above all the spam 

Did you double checked your baking powder and baking soda?

Hand vs Stand mixer typically doesn't matter... at least not in any of the recipes I have used...

I agree with AAtKT   Fresh ingredients are everything when you  are baking from scratch, flour,  eggs, baking soda, baking powder. Also make sure you are beating the mixture for the recommended time like you would  a box mix.

Also, check your oven temp.

You referenced beating the eggs, are you making a cake that uses only eggs as the raising agent?  If so, the egg whites need to be beaten to pretty first soft peaks, then carefully folded into the rest of the batter.

Using a hand mixer should not be a problem at all.  I made cakes with a big bowl and a wooden spoon until about five years ago and they worked just fine.

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