Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

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asked May 15th 2012

Any good recipes?

Hi everyone, I am always using fruit cake, madeira or victoria sponge for my cakes.  Does anyone have any other good  recipes ie chocolate?

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Hi everyone, I am always using fruit cake, madeira or victoria sponge for my cakes.  Does anyone have any other good  recipes ie chocolate?

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I usually stick with Jane Hornby, her cakes definitely work for me. Google her at  BBC food and look at her chocolate wedding cake, which is to die for. If you want something different for chocolate also try Willie Harcourt-Cooze with his amazing chilli chocolate recipes. Willie also has a great online shop and is based in Devon. I experiment with loads of chocolate recipes but non of them seem to produce the same density as the one that Paul uses in the tutorials, all except Jane Hornby’s, expensive though! x

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Hi Susan, I’m so glad the Jane Hornby recipe worked  out for you. I always tell people to make a small cake first for a trial as  the ingredients are quite expensive. I just love, love, love this recipe, but please try her others too, they’re honest recipes and always work. I’m a huge fan of Jane’s, not only because her recipes work, but also because she is always ready to help with queries via email.

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Many thanks I will try her recipe.  I am not one for experimenting as some of the ingredients are too expensive to waste.  I also eat the mistakes (if edible) and it’s not good for my waistline (or maybe that’s why I haven’t got a waistline!).  I prefer to learn by other people’s mistakes ;0)

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Sorry to be a bit late with thanks for replies but I had my email address set up incorrectly.  Thanks girls!  Any idea how deep these recipes come out.  Paul’s look about 4″.  I have to cook 2 cakes to get this deep!

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Hi Jayess, Jane Hornby cakes usually come out three inches. Don’t forget by the time you’ve filled, iced and decorated  the cakes are taller. I use her recipes for all my celebration cakes and they come out perfect. For day to day cakes I just experiment from the millions of recipes online and invent some of my own (which don’t particularly work, he he, but it’s fun trying!).

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Hi madeitwithlove

I had never heard of Willie Harcourt-Cooze.  His recipes look yummy!  Will have to forget diet and do some baking (any excuse).  Thanks for info.

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You’re welCOME!! Also forgot to mention that Fiona Cairns (her of the Royal Wedding cake fame) has some lovely recipes too, a little bit out of the ordinary.  I can’t wait for Paul to produce a cake recipe book.

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Hi madeitwithlove, I made the Jane Hornby rich chocolate cake at the weekend – sooo lovely and so easy – and so far one of the best tasting chocolate cakes I’ve tasted!! Thank you.

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Had a look at the Jane Hornby recipe & the review – it sounds like a fab chocolate cake. I’m looking to make a chocolate cake using the Wilton Graduation Cake Pan – would it work in that as it can’t be lined? When I make a plain sponge I grease the tin using trex & flour & the cake comes out of the tin ok. Just wondered if it would burn because it’s not lined? Thank you for any tips, Maura

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Had a look at the Jane Hornby recipe & the review – it sounds like a fab chocolate cake. I’m looking to make a chocolate cake using the Wilton Graduation Cake Pan – would it work in that as it can’t be lined? When I make a plain sponge I grease the tin using trex & flour & the cake comes out of the tin ok. Just wondered if it would burn because it’s not lined? Thank you for any tips, Maura

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Maura, I always used the Trex and flour method for all my baking tins and never had any problems with sticking.  I now use cake release spray and it works a treat.  I used this spray when baking the chocolate cake with no problems, although I did also use two “bake even” strips around the tin, so not too sure about whether or not it would burn.  I halved the recipe, used an 8″ square tin and baked it for about 2hrs 15min at 140 deg (fan oven).

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Maura, first time I baked the Jane Hornby chocolate cake I just greased and dusted with coco powder and the cake came out fine. I don’t know how it would work with larger cakes, but I;m sure the tin you want to use will be fine. Grease and dust with coco powder liberally and tap out the excess. Feed back would be good. Cheers!

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