It tastes ok, but it has a crunchy crust on top and all the fruit sank to the bottom. ANd thanks for your help
jag5,
Feb 7, 7:41pm
Fruit sinking... . . some say to dust your fruit with flour before adding to batter. Makes the batter stick to it, rather than the fruit sliding through the batter.
Crunchy crust on top? Not sure, but perhaps oven too hot? If it tastes fine, just enjoy it. I'm not averse to a bit of crunch on my cakes LOL
jaybee2003,
Feb 7, 7:53pm
How frustrating! Possible causes:Burnt crust:I have done this by mistake by having the oven on grill not bake. Door opened during baking or uneven/inconsistent oven heat.
Fruit sinking: Cake Batter not beaten enough. Incorrect or too little flour used. Fruit not dry and not coated with flour before mixing into the cake batter. Not enough raising agent in mixture.
What recipe did you use?
jaybee2003,
Feb 7, 7:58pm
If the entire cake is dry, it could have been cooked too long, or had too little fruit or butter in the recipe. If it's really dry, poke holes in the cake with a skewer and brush on a liquid: brandy, orange juice, whatever takes your fancy, wrap up in glad wrap and leave for a couple of hours to soften.
bunny51,
Feb 7, 8:39pm
No not burnt it was a nice colour, the top was just a bit crusty (tasted a bit like a macaroon without the coconut lol) It was a boiled sultana cake and the rest of the cake wasn't dry.
cgvl,
Feb 7, 8:39pm
Crunchy top: did you cover the top with paper when cooking the cake. Important to do so as it keeps top from becoming too dry and therefore going crisp.
Fruit sank: Always add fruit with the flour. I cream butter and sugar or what the recipe says then when it tells me to add flour I add fruit as well. Never put fruit in before flour or at end, always mixed in with the flour. Sometimes I add the fruit to the dry ingredients and mix it all up and then add the wet ingredients to the flour mix.
IMO its trial and error, we all make errors at times when baking and so long as its edible then I never admit to a 'failure' always call it an experimentation even if it means we have fudge cake made from crumbing the cake or add custard to it and call it a steamed pudding.
preheat oven to 160oc. In saucepan cover sultanas with water and bring to the boil drain off the water while sultanas are still hot add butter and leave to meltwhisk egg and sugfars until creamy add essences sift baking powder and flour combine with sultana mixturepour into prepared tin and bakie 1-1 1-4 hours until cooked.
I did cover the cake with baking paper towards the end as the top.
bunny51,
Feb 7, 9:08pm
Oh and thank you for yuour thoughts. -Don't think I will call it a failureit is nearly all gone hehe- wouldn't mind being able to redo the crunchy top except I don't know how it happened lol The fruit sinking is a bit of a shame though
accroul,
Feb 7, 9:13pm
I often find that for the first 12 hours or so, the tops of a lot of my cakes are on the crisp side, but after being left overnight, they seem to soften.
jaybee2003,
Feb 7, 10:00pm
Just my thoughts again: Compared to a boiled type sultana cake I often make, the quantity of fruit to flour seems over heavy. [Eg: my old favourite (Edmonds basic) cake has 225g sultanas to 350g flour]. Plus, I was taught with substituting wholemeal flour for white in a cake, you never sub more than half [so 170/170 is probably OK] but you increase the baking powder to compensate.
Next time, go for your crunchy topping - but I'd be trying less fruit, and adding an extra teaspoon of baking powder. That might stop the fruit sinking. Happy baking :-)
bunny51,
Jul 31, 8:07am
THank you I will try those suggestions next time I make the cake. (Don't ften get the problem of sinking fruit Don't know what I usually do and what I did differently yesterday when I made the cake, It is the first time I have made that recipe
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