Help!

I've got a cake in the oven that isn't baking. I've posted the recipe at
the bottom. I used the 13x9 pan and after 30 minutes the top is dark
dark brown and the center is very liquid.

I preheated the oven to 350 (it's a new-ish oven, only a couple years
old) and it was on for a good 30 minutes or more before the cake went
in. My digital thermometer tells me the temp is fine.

I've put a piece of foil on the top to keep the cake from browning more,
but I don't know how else to save this cake.

Any ideas?


Dawn



CAKE:

1 tsp. baking soda
1 c. buttermilk
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. shortening
2 c. sugar
5 eggs, separated
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. flour
1 c. angel-flake coconut
1 c. chopped walnuts

Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk and set aside. Cream butter and
shortening; add sugar and beat until creamed. Add egg yolks and mix
thoroughly. Stir in vanilla. Alternately add flour and buttermilk-baking
soda mixture to butter mixture. Stir in coconut and chopped walnuts.

Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into cake batter. Turn batter into
three greased and floured 9-inch cake pans or one 13x9x2-inch pan. Bake
at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until done. Cool on wire racks.

* I made one change, I added half a dozen chopped maraschino cherries to
the batter.

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:45:35 -0500, Dawn >
wrote:

>Help!
>
>I've got a cake in the oven that isn't baking. I've posted the recipe at
>the bottom. I used the 13x9 pan and after 30 minutes the top is dark
>dark brown and the center is very liquid.

Turn the oven down to 300 degrees right now and bake the cake for
another half hour. If worst comes to worst you can always cut the top
off it when it's cooked.

"Dawn" > wrote:
> Help!
>
> I've got a cake in the oven that isn't baking. I've posted the recipe at
> the bottom. I used the 13x9 pan and after 30 minutes the top is dark dark
> brown and the center is very liquid.
>
> I preheated the oven to 350 (it's a new-ish oven, only a couple years old)
> and it was on for a good 30 minutes or more before the cake went in. My
> digital thermometer tells me the temp is fine.
>
> I've put a piece of foil on the top to keep the cake from browning more,
> but I don't know how else to save this cake.
>
> Any ideas?

I'm not sure it's recoverable, but I'll give a few ideas for what may have
gone wrong. It might still be liquid because the leavening isn't working. If
there's not enough leavening (air and/or carbon dioxide gas) to make all the
little bubbles, the cake would be very dense and take long to bake.

I don't know about that first step. It would seem to me that the mixing of
the baking soda and buttermilk should not be done first. It could lose its
leavening power in the delay between making it and incorporating it into the
batter. Creaming the butter and shortening with the sugar can take a long
time and that delay wouldn't be good.

If either your baking soda or buttermilk were "defective", they wouldn't
react properly and produce enough bubbles.

If you didn't beat the egg whites until stiff, they might have collapsed all
their bubbles. Same is true if you mix the beaten egg whites in rather than
folding them in. One has to be quite gentle with the folding action so the
beaten egg whites don't collapse.

--
wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net

wff_ng_7 wrote:


> I'm not sure it's recoverable, but I'll give a few ideas for what may
> have gone wrong.

Thanks for the tips. You might be right about the leavening. My baking
soda was old, and I thought that step with the buttermilk was odd.


Thanks to Karen, too for the help with baking time. I let it go another
30 minutes or so, until it firmed up in the center. It fell a bit in the
center when I took it out. I'm not sure how dry it is around the
outside, but if I drizzle it with booze and put enough icing on it,
folks won't care.


Dawn

"Dawn" > wrote in message
...
>
> Thanks for the tips. You might be right about the leavening. My baking
> soda was old, and I thought that step with the buttermilk was odd.
>
>
> Thanks to Karen, too for the help with baking time. I let it go another 30
> minutes or so, until it firmed up in the center. It fell a bit in the
> center when I took it out. I'm not sure how dry it is around the outside,
> but if I drizzle it with booze and put enough icing on it, folks won't
> care.
>
> Dawn

My DH had a cake flop once. It simply caved in. His solution was to fill the
sunken center with custard, top it with chocoloate frosting, and pretend he
was making a Boston cream pie. Hey, when life gives you lemons ...

Felice

"Dawn" > wrote in message
...
> Help!
>
> I've got a cake in the oven that isn't baking. I've posted the recipe at
> the bottom. I used the 13x9 pan and after 30 minutes the top is dark
> dark brown and the center is very liquid.
>
> I preheated the oven to 350 (it's a new-ish oven, only a couple years
> old) and it was on for a good 30 minutes or more before the cake went
> in. My digital thermometer tells me the temp is fine.
>
> I've put a piece of foil on the top to keep the cake from browning more,
> but I don't know how else to save this cake.
>
> Any ideas?


Old baking soda would not be such a problem. Old baking powder, yes. But
your recipe does not include it as an ingredient. However, I've always used
baking powder even in the presence of buttermilk. I'd have expected to see
1 teaspoon of baking powder. BP is your leavening agent, the acidity of the
buttermilk is what makes it bubble when it reacts to the alkali in the BP,
in effect leavening the cake. Same with the baking soda. Place a little
baking soda into a bit of vinegar and see what happens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baking_powder

I think you have a recipe more typical of heavy, sweet cakes such as carrot
cake. Coffee cakes have much less baking powder but they are not heavily
leavened cakes. Same with pound cake.

Also, if the top browned too fast, try using the next lower oven shelf.

Paul

On Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:14:35 -0500, Dawn >
wrote:

>I'm not sure how dry it is around the
>outside, but if I drizzle it with booze and put enough icing on it,
>folks won't care.

Sounds good to me. Also, you could cube the cake and make a trifle.

Tara

On Apr 27, 6:14 am, Dawn > wrote:
> wff_ng_7 wrote:
> Thanks to Karen, too for the help with baking time. I let it go another
> 30 minutes or so, until it firmed up in the center. It fell a bit in the
> center when I took it out. I'm not sure how dry it is around the
> outside, but if I drizzle it with booze and put enough icing on it,
> folks won't care.
>
> Dawn

Usually with cakes of this type you should let it cool in the oven..
wedge the door slightly ajar and leave cake in there until it is
completely cold. That should prevent the 'sinking' problem if you make
it again.

Re cooking time - if the batter is put into three 9" pans of cakes
will take less time to cook than one large cake, so the cooking time
sure seems out to me.

LadyJane
--
"Never trust a skinny cook!"

Paul M. Cook wrote:
> Old baking soda would not be such a problem. Old baking powder, yes. But
> your recipe does not include it as an ingredient. However, I've always used
> baking powder even in the presence of buttermilk. I'd have expected to see
> 1 teaspoon of baking powder. BP is your leavening agent, the acidity of the
> buttermilk is what makes it bubble when it reacts to the alkali in the BP,
> in effect leavening the cake. Same with the baking soda. Place a little
> baking soda into a bit of vinegar and see what happens.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baking_powder
>
> I think you have a recipe more typical of heavy, sweet cakes such as carrot
> cake. Coffee cakes have much less baking powder but they are not heavily
> leavened cakes. Same with pound cake.
>
> Also, if the top browned too fast, try using the next lower oven shelf.

You're entirely missing the point. She "dissolved" baking soda in
buttermilk and let it sit and wait. She lost ALL of her leavening.

I don't know of a cake recipe that doesn't follow the creaming method.
Dry ingredients and wet ingredients are kept apart, butter and sugar
creamed together first, then flavorings, eggs and other liquids mixed
into the creamed mixture. After that is well combined, the dry
ingredients are introduced to the wet by fractions for swift and easy
blending. Baking soda is a dry ingredient, and so not mixed with wet
ingredients until the last possible moment.

Even your carrot cake and coffee cake examples use the muffin method, in
which wet and dry ingredients are kept apart until the last moment
regardless of the type or amount of leavening agent used.

If she will follow the same ingredient list again verbatum* but use the
creaming method rather than wasting her leavening as the recipe
instructs, she will succeed.

< * and that means LEAVING OUT the maraschino cherries!>

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 18:10:06 -0600, Pennyaline
> wrote:


>I don't know of a cake recipe that doesn't follow the creaming method.
>Dry ingredients and wet ingredients are kept apart, butter and sugar
>creamed together first, then flavorings, eggs and other liquids mixed
>into the creamed mixture. After that is well combined, the dry
>ingredients are introduced to the wet by fractions for swift and easy
>blending. Baking soda is a dry ingredient, and so not mixed with wet
>ingredients until the last possible moment.

A genoise, which is a wonderful cake, does not use this method. It
starts with eggs (or maybe egg yolks: I can't remember right off the
top of my head now) to which sugar is added and then they are beaten
til lemon colored. Then melted butter is added, and then the flour.
This cake is not leavened with any leavening agents other than the
beaten eggs.
This is the classic cake in a lot of tortes, and French cakes. It is
wonderful drenched with a liqour flavored syrup and then iced with
either buttercream, or a glaze of some sort.

Google for genoise.

Christine

Christine Dabney wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 18:10:06 -0600, Pennyaline
> > wrote:
>
>
>> I don't know of a cake recipe that doesn't follow the creaming method.
>> Dry ingredients and wet ingredients are kept apart, butter and sugar
>> creamed together first, then flavorings, eggs and other liquids mixed
>> into the creamed mixture. After that is well combined, the dry
>> ingredients are introduced to the wet by fractions for swift and easy
>> blending. Baking soda is a dry ingredient, and so not mixed with wet
>> ingredients until the last possible moment.
>
> A genoise, which is a wonderful cake, does not use this method. It
> starts with eggs (or maybe egg yolks: I can't remember right off the
> top of my head now) to which sugar is added and then they are beaten
> til lemon colored. Then melted butter is added, and then the flour.
> This cake is not leavened with any leavening agents other than the
> beaten eggs.
> This is the classic cake in a lot of tortes, and French cakes. It is
> wonderful drenched with a liqour flavored syrup and then iced with
> either buttercream, or a glaze of some sort.
>
> Google for genoise.

No need. I know what genoise is. And her recipe is Frankenstein's
sponge, sewn together from bits and pieces of random baking recipes and
an Abby Normal brain, and it couldn't work to produce a sponge. What it
might have made was a standard butter/sugar/flour/eggs, chemically
leavened, creaming method cake, but the recipe did not allow that, either.

"Pennyaline" > wrote in message
...
> Paul M. Cook wrote:
> > Old baking soda would not be such a problem. Old baking powder, yes.
But
> > your recipe does not include it as an ingredient. However, I've always
used
> > baking powder even in the presence of buttermilk. I'd have expected to
see
> > 1 teaspoon of baking powder. BP is your leavening agent, the acidity of
the
> > buttermilk is what makes it bubble when it reacts to the alkali in the
BP,
> > in effect leavening the cake. Same with the baking soda. Place a
little
> > baking soda into a bit of vinegar and see what happens.
> >
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baking_powder
> >
> > I think you have a recipe more typical of heavy, sweet cakes such as
carrot
> > cake. Coffee cakes have much less baking powder but they are not
heavily
> > leavened cakes. Same with pound cake.
> >
> > Also, if the top browned too fast, try using the next lower oven shelf.
>
> You're entirely missing the point. She "dissolved" baking soda in
> buttermilk and let it sit and wait. She lost ALL of her leavening.
>
> I don't know of a cake recipe that doesn't follow the creaming method.
> Dry ingredients and wet ingredients are kept apart, butter and sugar
> creamed together first, then flavorings, eggs and other liquids mixed
> into the creamed mixture. After that is well combined, the dry
> ingredients are introduced to the wet by fractions for swift and easy
> blending. Baking soda is a dry ingredient, and so not mixed with wet
> ingredients until the last possible moment.
>
> Even your carrot cake and coffee cake examples use the muffin method, in
> which wet and dry ingredients are kept apart until the last moment
> regardless of the type or amount of leavening agent used.
>
> If she will follow the same ingredient list again verbatum* but use the
> creaming method rather than wasting her leavening as the recipe
> instructs, she will succeed.


You could be on to something that the leavening was lost while the
buttermilk sat and went flat.

However, having made more cakes in my day than I can ever recall, and having
made pastries from scratch and in bulk for food services (college job) I can
say we never creamed the ingredients unless we made cookies. We simply
added dry to wet relatively slowly to avoid dry lumps and give the flour
plenty of time to saturate.

We did not ever let the batter rest, this is true. It was always straight
into the pans and into the oven.

Paul