Hi

I am trying to make a 3-tier wedding cake for my daughter. I am using this recipe:

http://www.bakingmad.com/recipes/cake-recipes/three-tier-fruit-wedding-cake-

The first one I made (the little one) had a cracked top when cooked at 150C so I then turned the oven down to 140C for the next attempts. I read that you should put a tray of hot water in the bottom of the oven when cooking, so began to do this for the trials I was running on all sizes of the tiers.

Problems: The bottom of the cakes just were not cooked! I did exactly what the recipe called for, but while the top was very cooked (yes, I put baking paper over the top as well) the bottoms were stodgy.

Yesterday I made the big one again (28cm round) and cooked it at 150C, tray of hot water in bottom of oven, for 7 hours, but while the top looked close to burnt, when I unwrapped it, the bottom was not cooked! It's been three cakes now that have not been cooked properly on the bottom.

I am desperate to talk to an expert fruit cake cook. What I wonder is: these recipes are really big and the tins are very full - almost over the top, except that the papers go higher so it kind of doesn't matter from that perspective. But maybe the cakes are just too deep to cook properly? I am putting the cakes towards the bottom of the oven, not towards the top so it's not that they are too high in the oven.

Also, I put a roasting pan of water right on the bottom of the oven. Should it actually be on a shelf? Will this make a difference to the heat circulating the over perhaps?

I have a Fisher and Paykel Saffron oven with a fan, fan forced and bake setting. I only use the bake setting for fruit cakes. Should I be using fan and a lower setting?

Does anyone know why the bottoms are always stodgy?

Thanks very much!

Fan forced , wipe another twenty off the temp. Turn the fan off if you can. 

Are you wrapping paper around the outside of the cake at all . I use newspaper around about four thicknesses around the outside of the tin . then lay about the same over the top. 

Put the cake on the middle shelf . I also sit it on newspaper. 

I don't use the water . Get yourself an oven thermometer and check the true temp of the oven .