Cake baking tips.

I received the following email and wanted to share this with you all.

Hi Jackie,


I am having many problems cooking a cake that I have done many times before. I am at the point of tearing my hair out and would appreciate any help you could give. It is a Womens Weekly cake that I have cooked about 6 times in the old oven and twice successfully in the new oven. It is the one I sent you a photo of with the "J" on the front.

I am having many problems - from being overcooked on the outside to being not cooked in the centre or completely hollow. I believe these issues to be temperature related and I have varied the temp, the length of cooking time, the size of the eggs, added more flour. I don't know what else to do.

If a recipe states that it is for a 20cm round tin - is it ok to use a 20cm square tin? I can't locate my round tin in the renovations we are doing from the floods but am tempted to go buy another one just to trial it.
I hope this email finds you and your family well.
Thank you for your time, Ann.


Hi Ann,

I am sorry to hear that some  cakes are not consistant.The first thing is to check the oven temperature and so you will need to buy an oven thermometer to check this.


If the cakes are overcooking on the outside and raw in the centre the oven is simply too hot.
Some ovens cook too quickly and so when the cake has formed a crust you can cover this with a piece of baking paper and a wooden spoon and this will slow the overbaking.

A "6"square tin has more volume than a 6"round tin, fill a 6"round tin with water to the level you would fill it with cake mixture and then pour it into the square you will then see you would need more mix to fill it, they are not the same quantity.

Are you pre warming your oven?

Are you measuring your eggs? or does the recipe say 3 eggs? If so they should be 50 g eggs not super dooper X large eggs.


Are the eggs fresh within use by date? the yolks should be nice and pert and the whites jelly like and not watery.



Are all the ingredients at room temperature before starting ?

Are you correctly weighing all the ingredients?Always sift the flour to add airation as flour is sometimes over a year old.



If the oven is over browning the cakes a small oven proof dish, ramekin, can be placed on a shelf with some water in it and this will create a moist vapour and slow down overcolouring of the cake.


Is the cake in the centre shelf of the oven? do not overcrowd the oven.

I hope this helps and I may have to put this on my cake blog as this is a common problem that cake makers have but if we create with the above guidelines we should be achieving beautifully baked cakes, fingers crossed!


Let me know of your outcome.

Have a good week, Jackie.

If you have any questions about baking just send me an email and I will reply on my blog to share with everyone too.

jackie@contemporarycakes.com.au