Hi there, I'm new to this forum and new to cake decorating. Please help.

I'm having this problem with my mud cake. The first one I baked turned out fine but the 2 I've baked since have been hollow in the middle, covered by a crust, so all looks perfect until I skewer it and the crust collapses. It's leaving very little cake for me to work with. I need to cut it to make many small cakes. What am I doing so wrong?? 

I put foil on the outside of the tin, would this be causing the problem?

Thanks for your reply. Yep, I did exactly the same for all of the cakes. I have googled and googled and nothing comes up. I just ended up having to make double the number of cakes to get what I needed.

Hi Can you post your recipe and at what temp you are cooking, do you line your tin with baking paper and then use newspaper or bake even strips around the outside? 

It sounds to me like you are baking it too high a temp , to prevent the crust I put a piece of baking paper that exactly fits the tin on top of the cake before I start to bake.  I double  line my tin with a rather high collar of baking paper and I wrap newspaper around the outside of the tin to help the cake cook more evenly , I also sit the cake on a sheets of newspaper on a tray as well. 

I cook it in a slow oven about 160 celcius for about the first hour and then I reduce it  to 150 or 140 for the remainder of the cooking time , depending on how long it takes.  It can take up to three or more hours to cook a mud cake. You also have to let them cool in the tin at least overnight, I like mine to have three days on them before I even start to ganache and cover them . They need to "set Up " 

Thank you for those tips, I will give it another go and go with all you have suggested. I would love to make this recipe work because it tasted great. Do you need to wet the newspaper???

I lined the tin with just a single layer of baking paper and lined the outside with foil. I cooked at about 150 deg.

It was only cooking for a couple of hours and perhaps I didn't let it cool long enough as I took it out of the tin after only an hour or so.

It's the recipe from a Planet Cake book, I've uploaded a photo of it.

Thankyou soooo much for your help.

There was an error in that recipe in the Planet Cake book  .....  from memory I think it was TOO much sugar - which could account for your problems.

I'll try and dig it out and get back to you
 

I did think it was a lot of sugar but figured, what would I know 

Maybe I need to find another recipe. Thanks for your help.

Oh, boy, that sure IS too much sugar! All my scratch recipes have about half as much sugar (by volume) as flour - say a cup of sugar for two cups of flour. This one has twice as much sugar as flour, by weight, of course, but it still can't be right.

Try the recipe in my signature - it never fails!  You might need to triple the recipe for the same size tin now that people are wanting much higher cakes.

I always bake with homemade baking strips and a foil 'tent' cover - these things will add extra baking time too!

Make sure you leave to cool completely in the tin

Ahhhh Planet Cake recipe  , that explains it . 

I don't wet the newspaper , you bake at such a low temp it doesn't burn.  

Do try Pam's recipe , and do let the cake sit in the tin overnight to cool . Mudcakes are a whole different animal to buttercakes and sponges. However once you have mastered them you will realise just how easy they are. 

Thanks Pam, I will try that recipe today.

It amazes me that they can get a recipe so wrong. All these poor people buying that book thinking it will be a great starting point and then they make it impossible to succeed.

Thanks for all your help.... I have to get baking now :)