Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

Please please help !  I have now baked my Madeira cake numerous times and each time I end up burning the outside edges.  I am following instructions and even have baked on bottom shelf with a baking tray on top shelf :(. Where am I going wrong ?

Hi cake day dreamer, there’s lots of good advice here already but here’s my tuppenceworth, which I hope you’ll find helpful.

I have a fan assisted oven and previously had lots of problems with my madeira becoming too crusty on the outside edges.  The tip about cooking longer at a lower temperature is a good one – I normally cook an 8 inch madeira for 2 hours 40 minutes at 140 degrees – on the middle shelf with a baking tray on the shelf above should stop the top browning too much.

I absolutely agree with lining tins – it’s a must with madeira as it gets quite firm on the outside and you risk breaking the cake in half trying to get it out.  It’s worth spending that 5-10 minutes lining your tins and saves the stress of wondering whether the cake will come out in one piece!  Measure out your lining paper and use butter or cake release to grease the tin thoroughly (to help the paper stick).  This will prevent your lining paper rippling at the bottom or any batter sneaking through the cracks to adhere to your tin.

My number one tip for madeira is to take a few sheets of newspaper, fold them so they are the same height as your tin and lining, then wrap round the tin.  It’s much easier to do this before you put the batter in!  You can secure with string but if you use cellotape you might be able to slide it off the cool tin and use it a few more times.  Just make sure you are sticking paper to paper and not paper to tin!  I also fold a sheet of newspaper and place it under the cake tin.  This makes a huge difference and gives the cake a better chance to cook through before the outsides get burnt.

Hope that helps, please do let us know how you get on!

JC x

Hi Hirsts2004

I used an 11inch square recipe, I reckoned 13 x9 = 22 then 11 if squared 🙂

Marg 25 oz

Sugar 25 oz

Eggs 12

Flour 38 oz

Two and half to two and three quarters hours on 140 fan assisted, don’t forget the newspaper round the tin and under, and a tray on shelf above it works 🙂 any probs please ask xx

Also put a greased metal flower nail into the centre of the tin first, then add the mixture around and over this, and it might help speed up the cooking of the cake middle. When cake is cooked, and turned over after cooling a little, it’s easily removed.

Hi cake day dreamer

I always line every tin with a double layer of baking parchment.  You could also try tying (with string) folded newspaper or brown paper around the outside of tin as in cooking a fruit cake.  See picture

Hi cake day dreamer, I always use maths for calculation of bigger/smaller tins but I have read about filling a tin with water and pouring water into required tin http://www.lindyscakes.co.uk/2009/07/27/how-to-i-change-a-cake-recipe-quanities/  explains this much better than I can

Glad to hear it all worked out, you’ll never look back with Madeira now 🙂

JC x

Hi jimmychoux, just want to thank you for the tip about using newspaper.  I always use the bake even strips –  they work great – but they are now getting a little worse for wear and I was thinking that I would have to replace them.  But after reading your tip I baked a fruit cake and a madeira cake with superb results.  The old fashioned remedies are sometime the best!   Thank you.

Point of interest guys, I baked a 12″ square madeira last week and baked at 130c fan assisted. Didn’t line tin with newspaper or any other additional precautions, but lined the tin inside with just one layer of parchment and no baking core. Baked for two hours forty mins, perfect results, with virtually no doming as is usually peculiar to madeira.  Carved beautifully for the LV style handbag cake in the tutorial library.

Hi cake daydreamer,

I am making a no 1 cake for my son and have a 9 x 13″ tin.  Having read all the fab tips above, please can I ask what recipe you used?

Many thanks.

cake day dreamer, perhaps you bake at a too high temperature. You haven’t said whether you have a fan assisted oven or a conventional oven. On a fan assisted oven you should turn the temperature down by 20 degrees or what ever the hand book says. I bake madeira at 140c in fan assisted and 160 in conventional. Every oven in different and you’ll have to experiment until you get a satisfactory result. Another thing you could do is place a round/square of parchment part way through baking if you think the cake is browning too quickly. Burning on the rim of the cake is mostly due to temperature being too high, the outside bakes too fast and the middle takes longer.  Just give it a go on a lower temperature and see how you go with that. Feed back would be good when you next bake, good luck.

Thank you, I bake at 160 in a fan assisted so i will attempt that first.  Besides it burning on the top it is also catching on the bottom and sides, I do not line my tins, i only grease them then flour, would it help if i lined them ?

Will give it another go this evening as its bugging me now.. 🙂

Hi ya, yes defiantly try lining your tins and put a piece of baking paper over the cake whilst cooking hope this works for you 🙂

Apologies jimmychoux, didn’t read the answers to the question properly and repeated you answer.

Of all the things I’ve lost I miss my mind the most! x

Ok baking tomorrow … I now need toconvert my recipe to a 9 x13 inch tin !!!! How on earth ?? X

I put a bowL of water on my bottom self and have used bake even strips around the sides to stop the outside cooking too quick

I did it I did it I did it :)))

Thank you so much for all your advice.  I have just taken out the oven a gorgeously golden all over 13×9 inch Madeira.

Oven temp lowered to 140, newspaper round the tin and underneath, tray on top .. Took slightly less than stated time too.

Im so pleased with it I took apic but can’t link it 🙂

X

Congratulations cake day dreamer! This Q&A works, it’s great.

thanks for that Madeitwithlove … i was so pleased with my last one, but worth a try still 🙂 x

Thanks for the speedy reply! Were the eggs medium or large?

Eggs were medium 🙂