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Vanilla Cake Gone Mouldy
Help! I always use Jane Hornsby vanilla cake & it has generally lasted at least 2 weeks after baking. However, I’ve just heard back from a friend that their cake is showing mould on the bottom, which I am obviously devastated at. The cake was baked on the Saturday, ganached on the Sunday & then covered with Sugarpaste on the Tuesday. Cake put straight on to a silver cake board, not straight on to a sugarpasted board. This what I tend to do normally & never had problems, but by today ( Wednesday) it’s showing mould. I’ve had other customers say their cake has lasted a good week after I’ve given it to them.
This one was a 12″ square cake compared to the normal 8″ round, which meant three times the recipe but surely this wouldn’t have made a difference? Really concerned, especially as I have another cake going out tomorrow that I baked last week. Any ideas why this may have happened?
Hi lozza72
There can be any number of reasons why the cake moulded. As a rule I give this recipe five days shelf life in a cool environment because it uses milk and yogurt. The atmosphere and all our surfaces are full of mould spores litereally in their trillions. The mositure in the cake and the recent heatwave must have triggered some of these spores to germinate. This happens even in the best regulated commercial bakeries. I’ve experienced the very thing from commerically made bread. We bake our own bread so it was a huge shock! I can’t say how your other cake will be but just wipe the board down well with some vodka or another tasteless alcohol to eliminate contamination. It’s possible the contamination wasn’t even from your home! It can happen once the cakes have left your care. Do you know how your friend handled and stored the cake?
If you are using syrup on the layers, allow the mixture to boil for a couple of minutes. If you are able to use alcohol, add some high proof spirit to the syrup when it has cooled. It will help improve the keeping properites of the cake. Usually 10% amount of the syrup is suffcient. There is a lot of discussion on the site about extending the shelf life of cake. See the discussions and click on threads relevant to you here:
http://www.cakeflix.com/questions?s=shelf+life
The following blog, although about ganache, may also be useful as it discusses airborn mirobes and why foods go mouldy.
I’m so sorry this has happened to you and fully understand your devastation. I think the best thing to do is to wipe surfaces which come into contact with the cake with alcohol and keep cakes in the coolest room you have.
Thanks Madeitwithlove. Unfortunately I forgot to ask how they stored the cake at the time, but something I’ll question when I give them their refund. Hopefully it is just the humidity & a one off, but will take everything you’ve said on board when I bake the next one. In the meantime everything crossed for this other cake.
I feel so sorry that you are having to make a refund. I guess it’s better than losing a friendship and customer. Keeping everything crossed for you! G’d luck x
