That's ok, feel a bit of an imposter atm as I don't know any of you ! Hopefully that will soon change. The way I see the flower nail is even if it doesn't work it certainly won't do any harm !

My mind is torn now on what to do next try 3 small batches for my bottom tier of sponge or just go with Madiera, I have baked an 8" round madeira successfully from Lindy Smiths bible and filled it and iced it well, I just prefer the sponge cake !!

AThank you all for fab pain the rear trainer comments.

Hiya Jo. If its any help I'm making a 9inch square Victoria sponge in the next HR, I always make mine in 2 batches as I find ,for me only 1 large one is dense, dunno why, yes it takes longer, but he oh as long as it turns out good I dont care.

If you want my method and recipe just ask OK?

AOh that sounds great yes please receipe and method would be great !! At least not the only one then to make a dense all in one !! ;-))

AOK, this my 2 stage cake.

9 inch square tin.

175gr, or 6 ozs caster

3 eggs, I use medium

Same for flour and butter.

1 half tsp baking powder.

1 tsp vanilla extract.

Beat altogether for 2mins, I do this for all my sponges now and never fails me.cook for 50mins on gas 3,160 fan/325f. Then I do exactly the same for next layer.

Hope this helps Jo?.

caster

AThat's sounds great ! I'm assuming each layer is lovely and soft, not like my suet texture cake !! How tall does this come out when sandwiched together please ? X

AIts so simple Jo honestly. Its tall,when you put your jam and buttercream in its a fab size. Light and fluffy.

AAll your really doing is halving your 9inch mixture, I find its so much better. The book I use constanly is , Fiona Pearce, Cake Craft made Easy, from Amazon, use it all the time and I all the cakes I've made not one is wrong.

I will say cos ovens vary to check after 40 or 45mins, I have gas which I find is slower ad it took me ages as was used to fan electric.

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3227830/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Jo I've sent this to you so you Havre for the future.

AHi Jo, welcome to the thread, sorry again for misleading you, I just meant to direct you to the fab ladies (and Gray!) on this thread. :-)

Lots to catch up on, a couple of things I wanted to say as I was reading. Cazza1's suggestion is good if you've already got a good recipe and just need to scale it up, I'd probably do what nanny does though, I do worry about big cakes.

MBalaska, for 200 grams I'd probably use 4 medium eggs. I don't use milk or baking powder either, nor vanilla usually but I have been known to use vanilla or lemon extract, both are lovely. The traditional way is to weigh the eggs and use the same weight of everything else, that's how my gran did it.

Jo, don't worry about sounding silly and inexperienced, nobody will make you feel like that here, I muscled in around the same time as Kathy (dayscakes) and everyone made me feel most welcome.

Speaking of Kathy, you "sound" much happier today, hope everything's going well. I've used a victoria sponge as a bottom tier Kathy, 8 inch bottom, 6 inch top, it was fine, and that was with a half hour drive across the city at school time through three areas of nasty speed bumps.

Argh, I've missed so much, gotta keep scrolling up and down!

Nanny, brilliant trainers! I knew you'd do a good job! Out of curiosity, what are the numbers for on the bottom? Thanks everyone for wishing my daughter well, she went to school this morning, peace at last!

Thanks whoever said I'm not a doofus! I can't even find that post now so I am a bit of doofus sometimes!

Natt, well done and fingers crossed for you. That looks a similar weshcake recipe to my grans, never tried it with anything other than fruit though. I will still dig it out but I know it will start with 3lb plain flour and something like 2lb fruit! She'd make a huge amount, be in the kitchen all day with a dining chair pulled up to the cooker. :-) I bet I've left somebody out, sorry if that's the case, lots to catch up on!

AHiya Maisie, wondered where you were. Daughters fine now then? Thankfully bless her.

The number at the bottom is her number she had to run in the London marathon, it a colleague of my sons, they all chipped in to buy her a cake, just my darling son said he'd ask me to make it, told him to bugger off next time, no I didn't really.

Hi Maisie - yeah bit happier not so much "stuff" today!  I'm sure it will return but for the moment I'm as happy as a pig in....cake!  I just saw those pigs in mud - I forgot who did them - sorry - but they were fab!  You only have to be off for a day and then you miss so much.  Good to know about the sponge - I think I'm just not a very good baker really - because I don't think I am confident in my sponge not collapsing.  Anyway, soon going to try some flavours in the next couple of weeks - thinking of lemon and ginger and orange and cranberry.  Will let you all know how I get on. 

Oh and Jo - I just forced my way in and everyone's been really fab and friendly. 

Kathy

Ah thanks so much Nanny Cook, i will try this method after I have cooked the kids tea !! Will try and quickly knock one up before hubby gets in otherwise he won't be impressed as he is getting sick to the back teeth of cake mixing/baking !! My Aunt bought me in me small eggs from her quantam chickens (think thats what you call them lol) so will use these up I need four to reach the 175 grams of everything else so hope this still works !! Will keep you posted ! BTW just bought an oven thermometer from my local Dunelm Mill to ensure temp !! Somethink tells me I'm a bit of a over worrier !!

THANKS FOR THE WARM WELCOME xx

ANo problem Jo.

AYep, daughter's much better, I'm so relieved! Kathy, just cos you're worried about something, doesn't mean you're not good at it! In fact it usually means the opposite, you're worried cos you want it to be the best it can be. Lemon, try lemon! Jo, 4 eggs will be fine, I use 3 medium to 175 grams of everything. A medium egg is usually around 60 grams so it works out about 180:175. If you're ever in doubt or haven't got the right size eggs just weigh them and use the same weight of the rest of the ingredients. My husband gets sick of me on about cakes too, that's why I joined CC!

AOops, sorry nanny, you answered my question and I didn't thank you! Thankyou. :-)

Welcome to the thread Jo!

Those of you who have bought from sugarpaste direct, maybe you can tell me where I've gone wrong. I'm having massive problems with it. The problems began after placing it on a cake that had come out of a very cold fridge (about 3C). The started smoothing the top bit first, then worked my way down the cake and that's when I noticed loads of tiny cracks all over (they looked like elephant skin except they were horizontal. The top edges started cracking too. I kept going and started smoothing the top bit and I couldn't smooth it- the fondant had gone all tacky. I guess it was reacting to the very cold cake. I spread cornflour all over the side just so I could smooth it. Managed to smooth it but had to paint the cake in vodka just to get rid of all the cornstarch. After a few hours- more problems!! I noticed air pockets on the top. Then later on after that, I saw bubbles (not just air pockets!) around the side. When I popped those, the sugarpaste just cracked. 

For the meantime, I'm going to cover the cake again. I won't even bother taking off the fondant that's already there. I'm so disappointed! Even renshaw was better than this. I'm wondering if I've under- kneaded and if sugarpaste direct stuff doesn't like very cold cakes. I've never had bubbles before and this much cracking! 

Sorry I'm ignoring the previous posts- just that this cake is for tomorrow and I just wanted it to look nice for my aunt and uncle. 

Oh by the way, I also rolled it quite thin- I used the orange spacers from wilton. It's less than 4mm- perhaps 2mm? Not entirely sure. Was that too thin?

Oh dear hope you sort the fondant problem. I was chatting to someone the other who said she uses two layers of fondant anyway?! Thought she was strange but maybe would help you in this instance, I also heard chilling cakes for too long means condensation comes through the fondant ? Not sure how true but might be correct?

Maisie can I ask do you use fan oven or convection ? Just going to try nanny's method but want to get it spot on! The oven thermometer confirmed oven temp is smack on the money so at least that's correct before I start !!!

I found that using trex instead of icing sugar works perfectly and I can easily smooth out tears!

AAw Jean, poor you! I had 2 air bubbles on my whole cake but I usually get 1 or 10 anyway so didn't think anything of it. I had the tuniest bit of elephant skin but ut really was hardly anything at all. My cake was cold, I didn't know if I needed to brush anything on top if the ganache before I put the sugarpaste on so I asked here and looked at some old threads. I read it should be room temp (a ganached cake) so took it out of tge fridge. I didn't leave it long tho, certainly not long enough for it to cone back to room temp, I brushed my cake with water (cos I had no vodka) and covered it, it was still definitely cold to the touch. I left it out on tge side overnight, delivered it the next day and it was fine. It was in much better condition than the renshaws black I used for the zebra stripes, that was cracking terrible in places. I don't know what you can do to fix it. Can you take it off and use sugarpaste you know you get on with better?

AOh Jean, your not hiding in my house are you? Thats exactly what I posted last night, I covered it in renshaws as I've just started using this, and like you try to smooth it and there were tiny cracks on the edges, doing my head in as I go back to it every now and again so I thought it was my fault and I caused it to happen, I was so afraid that when it was gonna be picked up I actually thought the fondant would break when touched.

I took the fondant off, I was terrified it would be damaged, but it covered fine and it turned out OK.

Also Nanny is using baking powder ok if I'm going to put another cake on top ?

ASorry Jo, must've been typing, I use fan. Good to know you're oven's right though. Mine broke the other week, had it repaired and then realised it must've been on it's way out for ages, it was like a new oven!

AThats what the recipe ssys Jo and I always do, I know some dont as they say theres no need with S/r flour.

Do your mean as in stacking cakes? You're using cake cards and dowells thought aren't you?

I did last year on my 3 tier cake.

ADid two 9 inch square cakes, do you want a photo to show you how deep they are Jo?

Yes going to use dowels and cards, use mixing up ;-)

AHi all.....:-)

Thanks Natt. Glad your interview went well.:)

Kathy, thanks but unfortunately it's not me who set it up.:-(

Roxylee, thank you! :smile:

Barbara, your cake is fab!!! Love those trainers!!!! :smile:

Jo Field, welcome to the thread. I have no experience on making Victoria sponge, so cannot give you any advice. But you have got loads of help already!!!:-) And just wanted to add that there is a scaling up chart on Lindy Smith's blog ( I think ). And it is so much easier to calculate if you have a recipe for an 8" round cake. But not sure it will work for your 4" tall cake tins!!!

AYes I mean trex smear small bit on counter then roll, I use tesco's fondant and find it great ! Thanks Bashini I have her book shame she doesn't bake sponge cake lol !

ANanny cook cake in oven and rising beautifully !! I'm soooooooo excited, just called the husband on his way home from work with orders for more stork and a big bottle of wine to celebrate ! Xx