Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I’ve been using a maderia recipe that requires 10oz of sr flour and 10oz of plain flour. 16oz butter, castor sugar and 8eggs. The cake turns out a perfect deep cake but ppl r saying its too heavy ….. Can anyone help 🙁

Hi Mara3363, you could try this as an alternative: www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10860/easy-vanilla-cake. I know that it is recommended by madeitwithlove, and is supposed to be not as dense as Madeira, but sturdier than a standard Victoria sponge. I haven’t tried it myself yet, but by all accounts it is a good cake for carving and stacking and has no problem withstanding the weight of a fondant covering. Hope that helps.x

Hello Mara3363

A madeira cake recipe should use less plain flour than self raising, usually half the weight of the S/R. Your recipe uses equal amounts of both flours which is probably why the cakes feel heavy. The Jane Hornby recipe in the given link is not a true madeira but it is a lovely moist dense cake. A quick guide to making madeira is to weigh the eggs in shells and weigh all the ingredients to the same weight except for the plain flour which should be half the weight. A little glycerine in the batter (approx 1 tsp per 4 eggs) will make a more moist cake and give a couple of extra days shelf life.