Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I have just made my first madeira cake using a good quality 10″ cake tin. I left the cake to cool in the tin then removed but my cake tapers so that the top of the cake is narrower than the bottom. What have I done wrong and how can I prevent this from happening again

Hi clan it is normal to get a bit of doming with madeira cake. When I make a madeira I wrap the outside of the tin with brown paper. The other thing to try is when you put your mix into the tin make a hollow in the middle of your mix, by pushing some of the mix to the edges with a spoon. but don’t do right to the bottom leave a little. Then as the mix heats up it will spread out more evenly. hope this helps. Ps sorry did not write sooner been away.

I saw a cake tutorial, that says to remove the cake from the tin, ASAP, to prevent distortion. I often leave cakes to cool in the tin, to no ill effect, but funnily enough, the same thing happened to my cake yesterday, for the first time ever.

Thanks Rostas, I’ll try that

Thanks Sharon54 for replying, at least I’m not the only one to have had this problem? 🙂

You can take care of most of the crowning on a freshly baked cake by pressing gently but firmly on the crown with your fingers. Do this while the cake is still fairly hot using parchment paper between your fingers and the hot cake. The crown will recess. Then when you turn the tin out of the pan have it sit upside down so there continues to be pressure on the crown. Almost nothing to trim off using this procedure.

Hi clan

I had the same problem . After a lot of trial and error I discovered it only happened when I used my fan oven. I think when the hot air in the fan oven hits the upper sides of the cake it makes it shrink away from the side of the tin but doesn’t affect the lower half sides if you see what I mean. Cakes done in the conventional oven seem to cling to the side of the cake tin, giving a nice, straight rise. I ‘ve never had a problem since I stopped using the fan. Hope this helps.