6 to 12″ in 60 seconds: Madeira cake ingredients
I have to say that I have been bowled over by how many questions I have been asked about Madeira cake since I started this blog. I mean if you check out my first post on it there are over 200 comments! So I shouldn’t have been surprised by the response to last weeks post on how to adapt ingredient amounts for different sized cake tins with a 10″ recipe along side. But there you have it. I was surprised. As promised in last weeks post, here is the chart with all the ingredients you need to make a Madeira cake from a 6″ all the way up to a 12″. I can’t fit a 14″ in my oven so I don’t possess a tin that size so if anyone needs the ingredients for that you’ll have to measure the volume in ml so that it is 3″ deep and let me know what it is! Then I can work out the rest.
The Measurements
This chart is for ROUND Madeira cakes that are 3″ deep so you can slice them in half to fill if you want to. (Buttercream measurements for different size cakes are being calculated now after a reader requested them. So, no more leftovers to devour for me then! Watch this space.)
Madeira Cake Ingredients
(this chart was revised on 27th April 2015)
I’ve also had a few questions about the ingredients on my first Madeira cake recipe post. That recipe was also for an 8″ round cake but the depth of that cake only came out to 2″ deep. The ingredients above will give you a much deeper 3″ cake. That’s why there’s a difference in the quantities of the ingredients. As I have got more experienced I have tested out other ideas and I think I’ve nailed the Madeira cake recipe now. Another two things to note are that I used to only use butter in this cake as I thought that would taste better but as my mum uses butter and margarine combined I tried that out and the result is a much lighter and more moist cake. The other tip she gave me was to mix in the flour and water in three goes. If you add all the flour then all the water you get a cake with lots of air holes in it and it tends to be drier than if you add them alternating for three goes. Small things = big benefits in baking!
How to make Madeira cake
- Line the cake tin with baking paper. I use sunflower oil to grease the tin so the cake stays soft. Butter tends to bake too quickly giving you a harder cake on the outside.
- Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC (Fan oven160ºC)
- Start by creaming the butters together then add the sugar and beat till it’s pale and fluffy.
- Very slowly add the eggs – a spoonful at a time. Add a spoon of the flour to prevent curdling if necessary. Add the vanilla essence and mix.
- Sieve the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl and have the hot water ready. Add the flour and water in three goes. This produces the fluffiest and most moist cake rather than adding all the flour then all the water.
- Bake for time stated on the chart for your size cake tin or until a skewer comes out of the centre clean.
- Don’t open the oven door for the first 30 minutes. It will make the cake sink.
- Leave the cake to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before turning out of the tin carefully.
Happy baking bakers
EmmaMT
P.S. I wish I had £1 for every time I misspelt Madeira!!!
P.P.S. I’ve been re-testing these cakes for the timings which have been taking much longer than originally stated – sorry guys. I’ve just got the 10″ left to test so if you’re baking that size just keep an eye on it after an hour. I’ll be testing the 10″ just as soon as I have more room in my freezer!
More Madiera you may like.
My Mum’s Madeira Cake Recipe Is The Best In The World
6-12″ Madiera Cake ingredients
Try This Lemon And Lime Madeira Cake Recipe. You’ll love the ZING
The Ultimate Chocolate Madeira Cake Recipe To Make Different Size Round Tins from 6 to 14″
How To Bake A Large 14″ Square Madeira Cake
FAQ: How do I work out the ingredients for an odd shaped cake tin
Absolutely perfect timing! I’m going to be baking a friend’s wedding cake soon and the bottom tier is 12″. I’ve never made a cake this large before and I just bought the tin last week! I’ll let you know how it goes. Fankee!
Oooooohhh great. Good luck with the 12″. Don’t worry about baking a cake that big. It really isn’t that different! Just takes a bit longer!
Let me know how you get on.
Good luck
EmmaMT
Hi Emma
Success!!!! I got a 3″ high cake with not too much of a dome and I set the oven a bit over 150 fan. I checked at 2 hours and wasn’t quite sure about the middle although a skewer came out clean so I gave it another 10 minutes. I would have sent you a photo for your opinion (bit sad of me really?) but I’ve no idea if I can do that on here. Anyway I’m baking in advance and stowing cake in the freezer. I’ve found that your cake, if frozen as soon as it’s completely cool defrosts beautifully and tastes just as fab! I cut this one in half before freezing so I could have a look at the inside and it was fine. What would happen if I cooked it for say 2 and a half hours on 160 fan?
Thanks
Ruthie
Well done you! Sounds like you’re a pro!
I have had really good results when freezing this cake. It always tastes as good once it’s defrosted.
I think if you had baked your cake for a 2 ½ hours in a fan oven the cake may have baked quicker on the outside than it did on the inside. In my experience the lower and slower you bake the better results.You also get less doming. I used to burn the outside and have an undercooked cake when I used my fan oven. Now I always bake without the fan and the results are much, much better.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma
I must say I have found your site most useful. I’m hoping u might be able to help me.
I want to bake a 12″ Madeira square cake. Will u please share the measurements with me.
The tin I am using is 30cm by 7.5cm deep square
Many thanks, Nikki
Hi Nikki,
A few readers have told me that they have baked a 12″ round cake with the ingredients from the 12″ round. As the tins get bigger the cake will rise better with less in, just make sure the cake mix is scooped up the sides of the tin and you have wrapped the tin with a few rounds of folded baking paper. This slows down the baking process on the outside to allow the inside to bake at the same time.
I hope this helps
EmmaMT
Hey!!!
OK….. Me and my mum are making a 4 tier wedding cake for my brothers wedding on friday and have never done made a madeira cake before.
if you have the time it would be amazing if you could help out with measurements for the cake…
1st cake – 8″ We are make two 3″ in height and sandwiching together with frosting… this will be a carrot cake.
2nd cake – 10″ Blueberry and almond (we have almond flour too)
3rd cake – 12″ White chocolate and Coconut (we have white chocolate to melt down and coconut powder/bits)
4th cake – 14″ Chocolate and Orange cake (we have fresh orange to juice)
Have no idea what the best measurements would be for each… and I heard that madeira is better for wedding cake as it lasts longer and is firmer?…
If you could help, HONESTLY THE BEST THING…
So much love, blessings and peace!!!!
xx
Hi there, sorry school holidays have had me away from my desk. I hope you’re cakes went well.
EmmaMT
I find your site and comments fascinating and really helpful. I will shortly be baking a 9″ square cake and wonder which icing you most recommend to cover it. Your advice Would be most appreciated.
Hello,
I tend to use Renshaw and Regalice makes of sugar paste. I have used supermarket brands which are okay but I find them a bit soft so they take longer to harden up which can be a problem with intricate designs.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, not sure if you are still reading the comments about your Madeira cake, but here goes ….. Lovely site and obviously a winning recipe cos so many people have made it, I am going to do it as well, but I have never ever cooked with so much sugar! Normally I do a vic sponge which has equal amounts of sugar ….. So could you explain the science behind so much sugar please? Sorry to be a nuisance. Live your site. Have just found it and have subscribed. Thank you
Hello,
I say the more the merrier – especially with sugar! But jokes aside…. this is a very different cake to Victoria Sponge where all the ingredients are equal – even the eggs! This is a more dense cake so requires more sugar. I’m afraid I don’t know the reason why but I do know it works and tastes fab.
Hope that helps a little!?!?
EmmaMT
Hi Emma
I have baked the 8 inch round Madeira cake as a trial cake for my grandsons’s birthday in March, it was very successful thank you for the recipe. I would like to make a 12 inch square cake for the day, would the cake mixture for the 12 inch round tin be enough. Kind regards Chris.
Hello,
Usually I would say just step up one inch in a round tin for a square one but I have had lots of readers say that they have made the 12″ for the round and square and both have been successful. I think it’s because when you bake bigger cakes they tend to rise up more with just a little less ingredients.
Let me know how you get on. Have fun baking
EmmaMT
Spoooooky, I had been looking for something like this. Opened bloglovin… et voila! Perfect, thank you very much!
Oh I love it when a plan comes together!
EmmaMT
Love it! I’ll be bookmarking this bad boy 🙂
Oh good. I aim to please!
x
Hi Emma
Would your oven temp be 150 fan or 160 fan for these 6-12″ cakes?
Thanks
Ruthie
Hi Emma,
I want to make a 12″ chocolate madiera for my grand-daughter who is going off to uni so we want to celebrate this occasion so how much cocoa would I need for this size.
Hello,
I have worked out the ingredients you will need to make a 12″ (3″ deep) chocolate Madeira cake. Good luck to your granddaughter. Hope she has a great experience.
12” chocolate Madeira cake
280g butter
280g Margarine
750g caster sugar
4 tea spoon vanilla essence
11 eggs
660g plain flour
190g cocoa powder
6 teasp of baking powder
11 tbsp milk
EmmaMT
can i use all butter or butter+olive oil as i dont have margarine…please let me know as I have to bake cake today only for party on sat…m in deep trouble…was luking for recipe for 12″ size cake and found this so very useful chart. Please suggest!!
I don’t see why oil wouldn’t work but use a vegetable or sunflower oil as it has less flavour. Weigh it.
Good luck.
and one more question…after reading all replies i realised that measurement of roind tin differs from square tin :-(…so instead of baking in a 12″ square should I bake a 10/11″ round? i have to make a pirate ship cake for my daughters bday party which is on sat and expecting 30 guests including 18-19 kids. Please help!!
A square cake is 1″ bigger than its round counterpart. So a 9″ square cake uses the ingredients for an 10″ cake.
Oh thank u Emma, u r a saviour, So ur 12″ measurement should work with 11″ square tin…i dont have any tin of that size but i’ll see if i can borrow one from my neighbour :-)…and i just realised that i have dermerara sugar and icing sugar only with me no castor sugar :-(…i have baked cake so many times before but this time m so nervous because of the size and trying madiera cake for the first time…any opinion on using dermerara sugar?
Demerara sugar is very course. You could try grinding it but I don’t know how that will turn out. Caster sugar is best.
oh thank you…will see if my hubby can get some while coming back home otherwise i’ll try my luck with grinding dermerara…thank u so much for ur quick replies. will let u know how it turns out. Millions n tons of THANKS!!
Good luck. X
Not a gud news! my neighbour is using her tin for completing orders(she is a pastry chef)…m using ur 12″ measurement in 12″ square tin..i guess it would be not 3″ high but will come about 2″…if it does then also i will be able to make the pirate ship as the ship has decks so it will luk high i guess..
It will probably come out 2-2½” tall which will still work. Just have a nice thick layer of buttercream in the middle and add waves to the base of the cake along the cake board. It will still look great and feed everyone.
Thank u again for this suggestion…but the party is not at home so i’ll have to take the cake to the venue..putting lots of buttercream as layer wont make it wobbely…just wondering??
[…] For other size cake tins see this post here […]
Hi Emma
I am a devoted fan of your madeira recipe and am so pleased for this table as I have been making the Hello Kitty cake for the past 2 years for my daughters birthday – 2 for her 4th because she loved the first one so much and a hello kitty pirate for her 5th (with skull and cross bones and an eye patch). I have made them in the 10″ square tin. The first year I did the 3″ but was too scared to saw in half and so last year made 2 x 8″ recipe which worked really well. I am just about to embark on a sailing boat so may try the 10″ divided into 2 – is this a mistake and if not how long do you reckon the bake will take. I still need loads of practice on the sugar paste side of things but still it has been worth the effort….
Samantha
Hello Samantha,
Thanks for your lovely comment. I would say bake the cake as you are most comfortable. I used to bake two separate cakes as I found I got a lighter cake, but since working out the ingredients for one bake for larger cake tin sizes I still get great results and it takes half the time. The hardest thing is cutting one cake in half as evenly as possible but as long as there’s buttercream yumminess inside no one really notices if it’s not perfectly flat. You sound like a keen baker so why not give the one large cake cut in half a go. If it doesn’t suit you, just go back to baking two separate cakes. If you don’t try you’ll never know!
By the way it took me ages to get sugarpaste to behave itself. Practice makes perfect and never more so than with sugarpaste!
Good luck and let me know how you get on.
EmmaMT
p.s. Nearly forgot to say that a 10″ cake will take around 90 minutes to bake
Hello Emma
As it invariably turns out I left myself short of time so I took a deep breath and went for the 10″ with the 10″ filling as above. What a fabulous cake. It took just short of the 90 mins and I ended up turning the oven down – my oven has a hot spot and I forgot to turn the cake around so I did end up with a singed edge but those bits came off in the shaping. I managed to cut the cake in a straight line but 1/3 down rather than half down but that didn’t matter. The only real error was I didn’t put nearly enough jam and buttercream in (I needed some butter cream to make the waves up the boat to cover my sugarpaste failures!) but I have discovered that double cream soaked over the cake that is a few days old is simply heaven! The end result was a cake that everyone correctly identified as a yacht (I used the risen top as the coach house roof – and the bow I made from the cut off corners – so not many off cuts but the few bits have been in the school snack box). It wasn’t the most delicate of creations and a bit lumpy but I have not yet had a failure on this cake recipe yet although I suspect mine is probably not as light as it could be – but still can’t fault the taste.
The down side is that I have to get this sugar paste business licked as the bar is now quite high for future family cakes and I am not sure that I can reproduce Hello Kitty for everyone’s birthday now that I have actually made a yacht!
As I lack patience, I would never have tried a shaped and decorated cake, had I not stumbled on this blog so I don’t know whether to thank or curse you for making it look easy and giving directions that actually do make it quite easy!
Happy Baking
Samantha
Great idea. I’ll have to give that a try. Sounds yummy. X
Hi. I’m about to attempt to make my little girls birthday cake & really want to try this recipe. I’m a little confused though. The initial page I found with the ingredient list on only mentions butter while the conversion table below mentions butter & margarine.
I’m sure this is probably a silly question but presumably the quantities are for illustration purposes & you use one or the other. I’m not supposed to use both am I?
I only ask because this recipe uses less fat than some I’ve looked at (when going by the initial recipe).
I’ve also just noticed that the conversion chart uses 6 eggs for an 8″ tin whereas the original recipe for this size tin said 3eggs. I think I must be being stupid but if you could give me a steer I’d be very grateful. I particularly want to use this recipe as its got such good reviews & it’s clearly meant for decorating & cutting into shapes etc. I am a little concerned that other recipes are designed to produce a golden Madeira cake to be sliced & eaten with a cup of tea – but have no obvious standing as the basis for a birthday cake.
Hello,
Thanks for your questions. It does get a bit confusing as I wrote the original Madeira cake recipe a few years ago now and I have learnt a lot since then so thanks for bringing this to my attention. I think I’ll add a note to this post so it makes more sence.
The original recipe I posted was for an 8″ cake but I found that it only gave me a 2″ deep cake and I wanted something a bit deeper so I worked out the recipes for this chart to give a 3″ deep cake that is more suitable for layering tiers and for slicing and filling with jam and buttercream. So you can use either recipe depending on how deep you want the cake to be.
Also, my mum always uses both butter (for taste) and margarine (for a light, moist texture) and when I gave this a go it made for a much more delicious cake. You would think that the richness of just butter would be better in a cake but it just isn’t. I haven’t looked back since.
Another thing I have recently discovered is that if you add the flour and water in 3 goes rather than all the flour then all the water you get a better textured cake with less holes.
As I say, I’m no expert – just learning as I go, but I am baking so often that these tricks are making baking so much more fun (not to mention hip increasing!!!)
I really hope that clears up the confusion. Any more questions just ask and I’ll do my best to help.
EmmaMT
Hi Emma. Thanks so much for your help. I’m not much of a baker but I’ve been out this evening to buy the ingredients – so I’m all set. Tomorrow evening is “bake day” so fingers crossed! xx
How did it go?
Hi Emma. Considering I am no baker it went surprisingly well. I got a bit of a dome but nothing crazy and ended up with a beautifully moist yet fairly dense cake that would be perfect for cutting into shapes (one bonus of getting a slight dome is that I got to sample what I cut off!). Your tip on crumb coating was fab too as I have ended up with a pretty smooth finish to my icing. I have made lots if very cute sugar paste bugs to sit on the top & also modelled her name to look like it is growing amongst trailing plants around the edge.
It has yet to be cut (party tomorrow) but I’m hoping it will go down well with the kids. Thanks to you I have found my future cake recipe & as it seems a perfect consistency to cut into shapes & may even attempt something non circular next time! Thanks so much for your help xx
ps. I have found a fab baking calculator on line that converts your recipe to any size of tin. It won’t help with some of the irregular shaped ones but as you seem to get a lot if requests re quantities it may be of some help. Thanks again
http://www.cakebaker.co.uk/baking-tin-size-conversion-calculator.html
Hi Emma,
Ive tried and succeeded with your Madeira cake recipe for 6″ and 8″ . It was really tasty and came out of the oven perfect with no dome
Hooray!!! Well done.
EmmaMT
Hi, I’m attempting to make my first Madeira cake this weekend and love the ounce of our recipe. However I only have a 12″ square tin. I don’t suppose you have the measurements for this do you?
I don’t have a square 12″ cake recipe or tin! but if you would like to measure how much water it can hold for a 3″ cake I can work it out for you. Measure in ml’s.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
I am using a 12×10 tin. I would like to bake 2 cakes instead of cutting one large one. I did try the 10 inch round recipe but it domed. The cake itself was absolutely gorgeous. Can you please tell me which measurements I can use to perfect two 12 x 10 inch cakes. Thanks so much. Caroline
Hello,
Thanks for your question. Usually when your cake domes it’s because the oven is too hot. I use an oven thermometer to check that the temperature in my oven stays the same. It rarely does! Another trick I have used to keep the cakes from doming is to place a piece of baking paper (with a hole in the top) losely over the cake when I’m baking it. I remove the paper for the last 10 minutes so that the top of the cake browns nicely and that works every time. It also keeps the steam in the cake and adds moisture.
If you want to bake two separate cakes I would probably use an 8″ recipe. I’ve calculated the correct amount and it comes out saying that you need a 6″ recipe but I know that will not give you the height you’d need for such a big cake and I’m sure you want to impress.
When using a large tin and not so much cake mix it’s essential to level the mix before you put the cake in the oven or you will get thin edges and a domed middle. I use a regular metal spoon to do this as it gets the best results. Spatulas just move it all around!
I hope that helps. Good luck with your cake. Let me know how you get on.
EmmaMT
Hi Emma
Thanks so much for your detailed reply. Cake turned out perfect using 8 inch recipe x 2 in 12 x 10 tin. It was really flat and perfect for icing. Best ever.
Thanks again
Caroline
Ahhh great. I’m so pleased.
Hi Emma,
Your cakes look amazing and I can’t wait to make my first ever football shirt cake, an Italian football team called Sampdoria no less! The cake needs to be big enough to feed 15-20 people and I wondered if you could advise me on square tin size and recipe. I was planning on using 12’x12′ square but I’m unsure how to adjust the madeira recipe.
Many thanks 🙂
Mel
Hello Mel,
Wow that’s going to be a fantastically big cake. You will probably be able to serve around 30-40 slices- but you can always freeze some if there is any left overs. There very rarely is though!
The recipes on this chart are for round tin sizes. In general with a square tin you just go up one size on a round recipe so for a 12″ square you would use a 13/14″ round. Now I don’t have a tin that big so if you want to measure your tin I can work it out for you. Just fill your tin with water to the height you want the cake to be (I go for 3″ deep) and measure as you go in ml.
If you want to make a smaller cake then a 8 or 9″ square cake will be plenty big enough.
I hope that helps. Have fun.
EmmaMT
Hi Emma,
Thank you for your reply. I think I am going to use the 9x9inch square as you suggested. So for this I would need to use the recipe measurements for a 10inch round?
Many thanks,
Mel
That’s the one. Have fun.
EmmaMT
Hi, do you use the same method for the 12′ as you do the 8″ ??? Im making my friends wedding cake at the end of December and want to do a trial this weekend. Also how long will this freeze for?
Many thanks
Karen
Hi Karen,
Sorry I didn’t get back to you before the weekend. Did you make your cake yet? I do use the same method no matter what size cake I am making now. I hope your trial run was a success. Nice to have a cake to test!
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, no worries I was really busy at the weekend so I am going to do it this weekend! I will let you know how it goes :o)
Hi Emma, I done the trial 12″ madeira from your page and it has come out beautiful!!!! I followed your recipe to the letter and I am so pleased with it, it tastes lovely. Your page has been such a big help and has given me confidence to do the wedding cake for my friend :o) x
Ah thanks Karen, that’s really good to hear. I bet your wedding cake turns out beautifully
EmmaMT
Hi, this is probably a silly question but I’ve never baked anything before and I’m about to attempt my baby’s first birthday cake! When you say teaspoon and tablespoon do I need to buy special measuring ones or just use the metal ones I have in my cutlery drawer? Thanks
Hello,
There’s no such thing as a silly question. You are right you do need measuring spoons when a recipe states tbsp (tablespoon) or tsp (teaspoon) The correct way to measure using them is to fill the spoon with the ingredients and then use the flat edge of a knife to scrape off the excess. But you can also measure a teaspoon and table spoon by weight. a tsp is 5g, 1 tablespoon is 15g.
I hope that helps.
Happy baking
EmmaMT
Hi I’m baking my brother’s birthday cake, my 1st! I have a 14″ square tin and have no idea on the ingredients, amounts and cooking time I’ll need. I want a plain but moist sponge, I’ve found the amounts of icing I’ll need to cover it but not to bake it. I would really appreciate your help!
Hello there,
Wow that’s a nice big cake you have to make! I don’t have a 14″ cake tin so I can’t work it out but you can help me. All I need you to do is measure how much water the tin will hold so that it is 3″ deep. If your tin isn’t watertight line it with a bin liner before you add the water. If you can tell me how many ml of water it takes to fill it to 3″ I can work out your ingredients. Sound like a plan?
I always make Madeira cake for this size cake as it is easy to create a firm and moist cake.
Spk soon
EmmaMT
I put the liner in the tin, filled it to 3″, and then had to measure the amount, by emptying the water into big pans that I have. They hold 5 litres each and I filled 2, so 10 litres…it sounds like a lot!
Natalie x
No that sounds about right. My biggest tin is a 12″ and that holds 4.5 litres. I’ll work it all out tonight and get back to you.
Thanks
EmmaMT
Thank you!
Hello again,
Here you go. These are the ingredient quantities you will need for a 14″ Madeira cake.
14” cake
310g butter
310g Margarine
830g caster sugar
4 ½ tea spoon vanilla essence
13 eggs
930g plain flour
6 ½ teasp of baking powder
12 ½ tbsp hot water
Bake at 180ºC(160º Fan) for 120-140 minutes
As I mentioned I don’t have a tin this big (nor an oven that it will fit in for that matter!) so I have estimated that the cake will need up to another 20 minutes in the oven but you will need to keep a beady eye on it to check. There are lots of ways to check that your cake is done. Recently I have gone by timing it and waiting till my kitchen smells of the cake. That’s a good indicator.
Another thing to note is that I recently tested out wrapping large cake tins in a few sheets of newspaper tied in place with natural string. (see my pics on facebook here) It slows down the outer edge of the cake so it doesn’t bake before the inside is done. I also place a piece of grease proof paper lightly over the top of the cake with a slit cut in the top while it is baking. This stops the cake from rising too much, doming and cracking.
I hope that all helps. Good luch and let me know how you get on. It’s going to be a fab cake
EmmaMT
Thank you!!! The tin just fits in my oven, close to the sides, so I will try the newspaper trick. I’ll let you know once I’ve given it a go! X
The cake is just out of the oven, browner than I would have liked and a bit crispy around the edges. One side didn’t rise, I think it’s because it was next to the door, so I think I would have rotate it a lot next time. It tastes good, is soft but a little heavier than I was hoping for. But it didn’t burn (which I was worried about, as the tin almost touches the sides of the oven) and it was cooked all through. Not bad for a first try! Any tips would be great 🙂
thanks so much for this, made a 10″ cake this morning for my daughters 5th birthday and on 2nd attempt it’s come out fab (1st time i didn’t split the mixture between two tins, just put it in one and we had a cake explosion in the oven!). thanks!
OH dear! I hope that wasn’t too difficult to clean up!
Glad the second attempt was a success!
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, Do you have a recipe for lemon madeira??? I baked the normal madeira and I am going to trial the chocolate madeira for the middle tier and I need a lemon for the top many thanks Karen x
[…] look at this beautiful 10″ Madeira cake. If you follow me on my CakesBakesAndCookies.com Facebook page you’ll have seen this cake […]
Hi, I will be making a 9″ round madeira cake from your measurements above, what temperature do I use for the 60-80 minute cooking in a fan oven?
Thanks
Hello,
I always bake at 180ºC (160ºC for a fan)
Have a good bake
EmmaMT
[…] and ended up with a green cake! Not to worry. It still looked good. I started off by baking three Madeira cakes in 4, 6 and 7” round cake tin. I loosely stacked them to check that the basic shape was […]
You are a lifesaver. Thank you so much mwhaw 🙂
Anytime. It’s a pleasure.
Hi, hope you can help? I have 2 questions, I am making a football shirt cake and a football cake for the first time next weekend. The template for the shirt states a 10 x 8″ tin, but I only have 10″ square. Would I be best just cooking it in the 10″ and cutting off the excess or attempting to section off the tin to make it the correct size and would this adjust your recipe quantities and baking time? The other tin for the football is 2 half domes from Lakeland with a 16cm diameter, do you know what quantity of your recipe I would use to fill these and how long should I bake them for? Thanks for any advice.
Hello,
I would bake the 10″ cake and either add the excess onto the end to make a longer shirt, make the shirt more square shaped or just eat the excess with copious cups of tea whilst decorating the cake. I bet you know which one I would do!
With the hemisphere cake tin if you measure how much water it can hold you can see which size cake mix you will need. On the post 6 to 12″ you can see the amount of liquid each cake tin holds(it’s under the cake tin size on the chart) and use that as a guide.
By the way the 10″ will take a lot longer than the hemisphere cakes so don’t be tempted to bake them at the same time. Do the ball first then the shirt.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, I’ve just discovered your site and think it’s great! I’ve been tasked with making a Bob The Builder cake for my little nephew and am planning on using your Madeira cake recipe, the tin I have is 10″ square though. I’ve read through all the posts but am a little confused on quantities I should use for this, I think that in theory I should use 11″ round quantities but can’t see those quantities on your chart, would you be able to help me?
Also any tips on how to ice the cake would be much appreciated as i’ve never done it before! I’m just planning to do a bob the builder ‘scene’, so I plan to keep the cake square and cover it with green icing, then place figurines/bricks etc on it. If only you had a guide on here on how to make a Bob cake!!
Ah that sounds like a great cake. I like the idea of creating a scene. You get to be all creative and have a ton of cake at the same time.
I’ve just measured my 10″ square cake tin and using the 10″ round tin recipe will give you a 2½” cake. If you use the 12″ it will be too much mixture so I would stick to that.
I would cover the whole cake with sky blue icing then add on the elements, grass, diggers, bricks etc. Then you have plenty of space at the top to add your message. When I’m making a cake like this I tend to keep adding till the cake looks full enough.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, thanks so much for all your help. However… help! I’m just doing a practice bake, using a 8″ round tin and the quantities as per your chart for an 8″ round. I cooked it for 45mins with no peeking, opened the door to find half the top had gone black, but the middle of the cake is still completely uncooked, skewer came out really wet, put it in for another 10mins, exactly the same gooey middle still! It’s also risen massively and is way deeper than 3″. Not sure if its important but when I tried your scope and bake method, I found it totally impossible to see the bottom of the tin, the mixture was far too runny for this to be possible. Any ideas how i’ve gone so wrong??
Hi I was hoping to convert this into a coconut cake should I replace some of the flour for desiccated coconut?
Hello,
I’ve never made a cake with coconut before so I couldn’t confidently say. When I convert it into a chocolate cake I usually swap out 50g of flour for cocoa powder so you could try that but I have no idea what the outcome would be.
Let me know how you get on though. It sounds like a winner
EmmaMT
Well I stuck to your Madeira recipe and added 50gms of coconut plus some extract. I also made your Choccy Madeira using the baking paper wrapped around the outside. I also added a tray of water to the bottom of the oven to help keep the air moist. These are the best cutting cakes I have ever made! No burned edges and no left over buttercream your measurements were perfect thank you so much! Top tier coconut bottom tier Choccy. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=657984040926235&set=a.528420723882568.1073741834.473495599375081&type=1&theater
Hello Emma, last week I made a small taster cake, I couldn’t believe the height of the cake 😉 and it was perfect in every way. I have just taken the larger cake out of the oven, it also looks and smells amazing!! My oven is fan assisted so I lowered the temp to 160, it took longer to bake but well worth the wait. Thank you so much for this recipe and the conversion table. Next cake will be your chocolate one!!
Helen
So glad I could help.
EmmaMT
x
hi emma
i am wanting to make a 10 inch round cake for my grandsons christening. do i divide the mixture between 2 tins or can i put it all in one. also what temp for a fan oven.
thank you
Hello,
I used to split the cake into two separate bakes but now I use the recipe quantities on this post
here and I bake it in one go.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
How Long dose ur recipt stay fresh thinking on make in advance sp hav time to decorate it.
Hello,
I usually bake on a Wednesday, cover in buttercream and sugarpaste on a Thursday and finish off decorating on a Friday ready to deliver on Saturday. Once the cake is completely covered in sugarpaste it is essentially sealed and will keep for a while – about 5 days before it’s cut, but I wouldn’t leave it that long unless I really needed to. It tastes best when eaten sooner rather than later
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi there, this looks like a perfect recipe for my sons 4th birthday lego cake! I have a 10″ square tin, so do I go for the 12″ ingredients/instructions?? Scared to death of getting it wrong!! Xxx
I’ve used the 10″ and 12″ round cake recipes for a 10″ square cake and both work, they just come out a different heights. I think I’ve had most success with the 10″ though.
Be brave. There’s nothing to be scared of. You just have to go for it. You’ll be fine!
Have fun baking
EmmaMT
Hi Emma.
I made my very first attempt last night at making an 8″ square cake sing the 9″ round cake recipe. Its a trial run before attempting to make a 10″ cake for my daughters christening in 2 weeks (gulp!!)
It all went wrong for me……the mix looked great and I baked with a loose peice of baking paper on top to stop it being domed and baked on 150 degreen as I have a fan oven, it did take forever to bake but basically, the cake not only domed, it stuck to the loose bit of baking paper and the sides of the cake were far too over done. Most of the top of the cake came off when I pulled off the baking paper and after cutting the rock hard sides of cake off, the cake is probrably now about 2″ square haha..ok I exaggerated a bit there but it is about 6″…..what did I do wrong? – It tastes absolutely awsome though :-)….oh and I should have waited for the jam to cool 1st before adding the buttercream as you suggested on another post – what a mess!
It sounds like you have had a bit of a nightmare! Don’t panic. It happens to all of us bakers at some time or other!
Usually when a cake bakes too fast on the outside and not enough on the inside it’s an oven/temperature problem. Baking with the fan on always caused me problems in the past, that’s why I don’t use the fan anymore. If you have to use a fan then the oven should be at 160ºC. It may be worth investing in an oven thermometer as ovens are rarely at the temperature on the dial and that way you have more control. I have also been experimenting recently with wrapping the outside of the cake tin with brown or greaseproof paper. It only takes around 3-4 layers to slow down the outside baking too quickly! You can see my post on that here
Next time you place a piece of greaseproof paper over the cake give it a very light coating of vegetable oil as this will prevent the cake sticking. My cakes are usually baked enough that when the cake reaches the paper it isn’t sticky anymore but this should prevent that problem in the future.
Yes I would always wait for the jam to cool before adding anything with buttercream attached! I have seen that kind of mess first hand! Lessoned learnt or should that be lesson eaten!
I hope the next cake is a huge success. Your daughter is a lucky girl to have her mum make her Christening cake.
Good luck and let me know how you get on.
EmmaMT
x
Hi Emma,
I am making my cousins wedding cake in August with a trial run at Easter. She has just given me the tins she has bought and they are round 4inch deep. Is there a way to adapt your recipes for this depth. She is after 4 tiers, a 12inch choc madeira cake followed by 10 inch normal madeira then an 8 inch choc and finally 6 inch normal.
Hello, I’m doing a 4 tier wedding cake but I can’t seem to find a recipe for a 14″ madeira cake, can anyone help me please, many thanks claire
Here you go. These are the ingredient quantities you will need for a 14″ Madeira cake.
14” cake
310g butter
310g Margarine
830g caster sugar
4 ½ tea spoon vanilla essence
13 eggs
930g plain flour
6 ½ teasp of baking powder
12 ½ tbsp hot water
Bake at 180ºC (160º Fan) for 120-140 minutes but check it regularly as sometimes it needs a little longer
Thank you so much for your help
Helllllooooo. I am attempting a formula 1 car cake for my OH. It needs to feed 20 so was thinking of baking a 10 inch by 14 inch tray cake to cut into shape. What recipe would u suggest and how far in advance can I make it?!
Thank u
Xx
Hello,
I’ve made a formula 1 cake before. I had completely forgotten about that until your comment!
I think a 10 x 14″ cake is a great idea as some cake will be shaped thinner but that should still leave you plenty to slice for 20 people.
If your tin is deep enough I would use the 9″ Madeira cake recipe which will rise up in such a large tin and should give you a cake that is around 2-3″ deep. If you want to make sure you have enough to play with then I would use the 10″ recipe.That should give you a 3″ deep cake. If your tin is shallow you can always have the baking paper extend higher than the sides to allow for the cake to rise up.
Find the 9 & 10″ recipes here
Good luck
EmmaMT
Hello I recently made your 8 inch round maderia cake. I’ve never made one before. I baked the cake at 150 fan assisted. Sadly in my oven and you can not turn the fan off. I can’t remember how long cooked the cake for as I’ve tried two different recipes this weekend. I tested the middle of the cake twice with a skewer it came out completely clean. I removed the cake from the tin and it completely collapsed in the middle which was un cooked. I’m confused now as the skewer came out clean, please can you give me some advice. Many thanks.
Hello,
What a shame. I haven’t had a cake collapse in the middle before but I have had them come out uncooked in the middle when I’ve tested them and it is so frustrating.
Fan ovens circulate the heat in a different way to non fan and gas ovens so I think that this may have been the problem in this case. It’s worth investing in an oven thermometer to check that your oven is at the correct temperature. So many times the dial says one temperature and the thermometer says another!
To avoid this happening again I would check the cake is done in other ways. If you press your finger lightly on the top, middle part of the cake and it springs back straight away that’s a good sign it’s ready. If it returns slowly it’s not. Another indicator is when you can smell the cake in the kitchen. But my fail safe would be to use a knife rather than a skewer to check that your cake is baked right through to the middle. A knife has a bigger surface for unbaked cakes to stick to so there is less chance for a cake to look ready before it is.
I’ve been wrapping my cakes in paper to avoid the outside baking before the inside does. I would recommend you give this a go too as you may need to leave the cake in the oven for a bit longer. Have a look at this post on how I do it.
I hope this helps. Please let me know how you get on. Good luck.
EmmaMT
Hi i’m making a 2 tiered anniversary cake for a 25th wedding anniversary, this bigget i’ve done before is 8 inch sandwich tin so making a 12 ” round all in one tin , is scaring me somewhat!
I also have to make a handbag shaped cake for a friends 30th and i have before used an oblong tin, approx 12″ by 8″ but used a ponge mix, which isn’t the best for carving. can you tell me what quantities i should use, the tin is quite shallow so I will have to bake it as 2 seperate tins.
Many Thanks
Hello,
Can you tell me how deep the tin is Amy? My recipes are for 3″ deep tins so if yours is smaller you’ll need to adjust.
For a regular 12x 8″ tin (that is 3″ deep) you would use a 10″ cake recipe so you may need to use half this amount.
Hope that helps to start with
EmmaMT
Many thanks for your help. I’m determined to get this maderia cake right. Ive perfected victoria sponges and cup cakes, this maderia cake is a challenge. I shall invest in an oven thermometer. Will try again this weekend. The parts of the cake that were cooked tasted lovely and moist just like a Victoria sponge. I was really impressed. I wrapped the cake tin in a wet tea towel cut to size. Maybe I will just try the brown paper as this works fine for me when doing christmas cakes. I don’t have much success using baking powder so thought that’s were I may have gone wrong. I tried another recipe with out the baking powder and it was so dense and dry, nothing like the part of the cake I tried using your recipe. Do you think 150 is a good temperature to make this cake in a fan assisted oven or should I lower it to 140? Many thanks for your help.
Could sultanas be added to this cake? I have been asked to do a sultana cake and love this recipe.
Definitely! I’ve done that before. I soak my raisins in apple juice over night so they are all plump when baked (actually I soak them in alcohol most of the time!) I add around 100g of raisins to an 8″ cake but it’s all personal choice. You can add more or less to suit your tastes.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Thanks Emma. Will go for the alcohol!
Good idea!
Hi, sorry this might sound a silly question but i have baked your 8″ round tin recipe before and it was lovely but need to bake a few different sizes so looked at your chart and the recipe for the 8″ is different to what you’ve said on a different page e.g. 6 eggs instead of 3, 412g flour instead of 225g please help as a little confused and not sure if i’ve been doing it wrong! 🙂 x
Sorry i’ve seen why this is lol and that’s great as i have had to make 2 cakes at the old recipe to get the depth i need so think this will save me some time as making 2 x 2 tier cakes. Thanks xx
Hi Donna,
Yes sorry, I’ve been blogging for a while and have learn a lot along the way – hence the confusion! I used to double the old recipe but now I can bake one cake – no matter what the size and it works beautifully.
Hope your cake goes well.
EmmaMT
Hello,
Thanks for your question. When I first posted the Madeira cake recipe I had made if a few times. Now I’ve made it tons and have hence learnt how to convert ingredients for different cake sizes. The original recipe was for a more shallow cake – around 2″ tall which I always found a bit short for my designs so I worked out the ingredients to make a 3″ tall cake and that is why the ingredients differ! I hope that makes a little more sense.
So you’re not doing anything wrong at all!
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma please can you give me the correct measurements of ingredients for a 12″ square cake? I know someone asked you before i didn’t see any measurements posted. Also I notice your recipe doesn’t include lemon juice or zest I thought Madeira cake was made using both? I have no idea never made one before I am slightly apprehensive!
I hope to bake it early tomorrow morning and fill tomorrow night and decorate Thursday and Friday for delivery Saturday afternoon. Many thanks xx
Hello,
I have been using the 12″ round recipe for the 12″ square tin and it has been working perfectly. It still rises up to around 3″.
I would only add lemon juice/zest when making a lemon flavoured Madeira. I’m sure there are tons of different recipes out there.
Good luck with your bake.
EmmaMT
Made this cake today! Used the 8inch recipe but didnt realise my tin was 9 inch. Fabulous is all I can say though. Family agreed it was the best one I had made. Perfectly risen. Scrummy! Thank you. Now to master it for a 12 inch square tin.
So glad it worked out so well for you. Sometimes when you use a bigger tin it allows the cake to rise that little bit more.
Thanks for your lovely comment
EmmaMT
Hi, Sorry to be a nuisance, I wil be making a two tier cake for the first time ever and will be using 9″ and 11″ round tins. Do you think that is a good combination? If so, would you mind providing the 11″ quantity?! I am very nervous about making this and really want to get it right!
Many many thanks. Lisa (just found your website today, it’s amazing, wil be following from now on)
Hello,
Thanks for your question. Yes a 9 and 11″ cake would work perfectly. I always consider the decorations I want to add. Sometimes you want more than an inch either side of the tiers to add flowers or models etc but as a rule of thumb I go up in 2’s.
Unfortunately I don’t have an 11″ cake tin so I can’t measure the amount it holds. If you would measure how much water your 11″ cake tin holds so that it is 3″ deep I can work it out for you. Just pop a new bin bag (one without holes in obviously) into your tin them measure how may ml of water it holds.
EmmaMT
Hi, I’ve measured my 11″ round tin and it holds four litres of water and it is 3″ deep? Many thanks Lisa
Hello,
4000ml of water means you would use the 10″ cake recipe on this chart.
Let me know how you get on.
Have fun
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, I used your 12″ amounts for my 11″ tin round tin and it worked out fine in the end! Many thanks Lisa
Ah I’ve just seen this comment after sending you a reply.
Glad it all worked out well
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, I need to do a 9 inch square madiera cake, would I use your 10″ round cake quantities? Trying to work out how best to do it? Or should I measure the volume in the tin first? Any help gratefully received! C
Hi Caroline,
I would use a 10″ round recipe but if you measure the quantity of water your cake tin can hold you can see which size recipe is best. The amounts in ml under each cake tin size on this chart will help… I hope.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma,
Well, I’ve read through every review and your replies. Excellent questions and answers!
Now, Help!!! I’ve recently gone a bit crazy with baking and have set myself up to make one of my grandsons an 18th birthday MMA (mixed martial arts!) octaganol cake. Topped with whatever relevant decorations I can find!
So, I intend to bake a 10″ x 10″ square cake. Cut the corners away to make it 8 sided, I hope! A friend is going to do a template for me! All sounds a bit technical, especially for me!
You have answered these question somewhere above, but please answer one more time for me!
Do I make mixture equivalent to the 10″ round tin or, the 12″ tin please?
Does ALL the mixture go in the one tin which is 3″ deep?
Also, do I have to cut it through? Would rather not!!
I want to ice it completely.( I will crumb cream it first).Never ever taken on anything like this before, so will see the result when I have the courage to give it a go!
To top all this, they don’t even live over here, so I’m baking and freezing the cake a couple of weeks before and when I take it over to them I will do all the decorating. Mad or what?!!
I would appreciate hearing from you. I too feel a bit nervous and really want it to look good.
Many thanks.
Val.
PS: Having a trial run in a few days. As the birthday isn’t ’til August, I have some time.
Hi again,
Just checking I’ve sent my request to you correctly and that you have received it!!
Thanks V.
Wow, that sounds like a great cake.
I would use a 10″ round cake recipe as the cake will still rise up and be light and fluffy.
Yes, place all the ingredients in the baking tin in one go.
You don’t have to cut it through. My mum leaves the cake whole then adds a layer of jam, marzipan then icing to the outside. It’s still the best taste combination. EVER!
I’ve frozen cakes loads and it really doesn’t effect the taste at all. Just make sure the cake is completely cool before you freeze it. Wrap it in two layers of cling film and don’t freeze it with any buttercream or sugarpaste on it. It’ll make a big sticky mess!
I would cover the board now so it is nice and hard and won’t get any finger prints in it and also make any models you can in advance so they too will dry and harden. There’s nothing worse than having to rush a model…or having a groom’s leg fall off the model as it hadn’t had time to dry thoroughly before you drove with it for an hour!
Good luck and don’t be nervous. After all it’s only cake and you get to eat the trial run!
EmmaMT
Hi Emma,
Thank you for your quick reply and advice on this.
Am baking the trial cake today, so yes, neighbours and maybe me, will be ‘testing’ it!!! Who am I kidding? Of course I’m going to enjoy testing it!
Many thanks again,
Regards,
Val.
Hi again Emma,
My chocolate madeira cake baked beautifully. So as it was my tester cake, my friends had great chunks and I asked them for honest answers as to what they thought of it!
I tasted a piece myself. They thoroughly enjoyed it. Said it was the softest cake they had tasted homemade. I also thought it was gorgeous. Just moist enough.
But, I froze the rest and have just defrosted a portion and found it to be dense and dry. The flavour was great, but seemed almost a stale consistency. Dried up and absolutely no give when I gently ‘prodded’ it with my finger.
Can you give me one of your great pieces of advice, on how, when I bake the next one which will be for the birthday cake for my grandson, I can make sure it will be more moist
please?
I am freezing it as travelling to France with it!
I will be covering it with loads of buttercream and other cake toppers and things.
Will this help to moisten it a little?
I am so worried I will be presenting a cardboard cake covered in cream!
Help please!!
Thank you Emma x
Hi Val,
I’m sorry to hear your chocolate cake turned to cardboard! That is not the desired effect at all!
I have found that this cake tastes nearly exactly the same after freezing as it does fresh so I’m not quite sure what’s gone wrong here. When I freeze a Madeira cake I make sure it is completely cold before I give it two layers of cling film before I pop it in the freezer. I then allow it to come to room temperature on the kitchen worktop to defrost.
You could try to bake the cake with a oven proof dish full of water in the oven at the same time. This adds more moisture to the air during baking and gives the cake a more moist taste and texture. But failing that a layer of jam and buttercream in between layers and a buttercream coating on the outside before you add the sugarpaste will definitely keep everything nice and moist.
EmmaMT
Hi Emma love reading your blog. I am a total beginner at cake baking. If I want to make a Madeira cake in a 10″ square silicone mold, what mix do I use? Would it be a 12″ mix, so confused lol xx
Yep a 12″ round cake recipe would be perfect for your 10″ square mould. Make sure you place the mould on a baking sheet so it is secure and firm whilst being handled when hot.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Thank you Emma you have been a great help. Xxxx loving your blogs xxx
Hiya, i made this cake in march for my daughters first birthday and shaped it into a number 1 and everybody said it was delicious! My next step is a half sphere cake tin, im going bake it in a 6 an 8 inch half sphere cake tin. Do you have any idea on cooking times or mixture size? They are lakeland tins and hold Just short of 1000ml water and 2000ml when filled to the top. Thanks in advance cant wait to eat your cake again
Hello Ashleigh,
I’m so sorry but your comment seems to have slipped through the net and I’ve only just seen it! I hope I’m not too late to help with your cake.
Here are the ingredients for the volumes of cake tin you have given. I’ve never baked in a sphere cake tin before so I’m not too sure about timings. I would suggest that you bake each size tin separately as the small one will bake much quicker than the larger one and if you open the door too early the large one may deflate.
1000ml volume cake tin chocolate Madeira cake
63g butter
63g Margarine
170g caster sugar
1 tea spoon vanilla essence
3 eggs
190g plain flour
1 ¼ teasp of baking powder
2½ tbsp hot water
Bake at 180ºC(160º Fan) Check after 20 minutes.
2000ml volume cake tin Madeira cake
130g butter 130g
Margarine 340g
caster sugar
2½ tea spoon vanilla essence
5 eggs
380g plain flour
2½ teasp of baking powder
5 tbsp hot water
Bake at 180ºC(160º Fan) Check after 25 minutes and use a skewer all the way down to the bottom of the cake to ensure it’s baked right through.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma,
I sent a message to you 18 April and think I probably should have sent it separately to my other messages to you, so do apologise for doing that! Don’t want to waste time in typing it all again, but would so appreciate just hopefully a little more help please!
It is just about the 4th note up from the end.
Well it is at the moment!
Many thanks,
Val.
Hello Emma. Thank you so much for your extra tips. As I still had part of the cake in the freezer though, I took it out and left it to thaw for a couple of nights to see what would happen. It was perfect. Again, I taste tested it on a friend and she said it was lovely. A complete relief.
When I do bake the actual cake, I will put water at the bottom of the oven. Good idea anyway.
Many thanks again.
Val
I got roped into making two 90th birthday cakes for a church member. Thank you sooo much for your recipe and timings. It resulted in a beautiful well risen cake, which also cut beautifully. I went with a simple decoration of white sugarpaste with 90 written on top and some sugarpaste stars. Your icing tutorial also helped massively. Just need to knead the sugarpaste for a bit longer next time to avoid the corners cracking. 🙂
I’m so glad I could help. Well done.
EmmaMT
Hi Emma just found your site, brilliant…i have to make three tier stacked wedding cake..lemon drizzle the bride wants 6 9 and 12.. She would just like marzipan and buttercream icing no sugar paste …haven’t done anything like this before. What is your advice please and quantities??? Thank you.
Hello,
I don’t have a recipe for a Lemon drizzle cake that you can stack. You could use this Madeira recipe and instead of using the vanilla essence you could use gratedlemon rind and the squeezed juice. I would use half a lemon for an 8inch cake. You can then make a lemon drizzle to add once it’s out of the oven. See Mary Berry’s recipe on this post here.
For buttercream quantities see this post
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma
Just come across your website and it is so helpful. However I have one small query. I am making a 14″ x 9.5″ x 2″ madeira cake which will hopefully form the body of a football shirt for my son’s 7th birthday. I have managed to scale up the recipe (well I think I have!) and it looks like I need 13 eggs. However, I have today been shopping and bought large eggs by mistake. Can I use these instead and if so, how many would I use? Also, when I did the conversion (I used the ingredients from your 8″ round 3″ deep tin), I have assumed that any calculations that come out with a decimal point lower than .5 I have rounded down and likewise rounded up if it’s over .5 – hope that makes sense!! If you can give me any guidance I would be most grateful.
Many thanks.
Sarah
Hello Sarah,
I’ve been using large eggs for a while now and it hasn’t made any difference. If I’m totally honest my husband does the food shopping in out house and he’s been buying large eggs for months and I didn’t even notice!
Yes, I tend to round up or down on the decimal point. I tend to go up with eggs as I think it makes the cakes lighter and more moist but everything else I go down.
I hope that helps. Football shirt cakes always go down well!
Have fun baking
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, I use your recipes for most of my cakes but need to make a 4 egg recipe for a Millennium Falcon Silicon mould. Any help?? Many thanks. Cat. X
Hello,
The best way to work out how much ingredients you need is to measure water into the tin and see how much it can hold. If it holds say 2000ml of water then you can use the 7″ recipe here. Always go down a cake size as the ingredients nearly always rise up more and the cake is lighter.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
HI Emma,
good day to you. i’ve been reading all posts related to your Madeira cake and trust me, it got me hooked. well, i have a baby shower event coming on for this Sunday so i’ve decided to embark on your recipe which sounds/looks very delicious.i’d tried sample cake 2 days and it turns out very nice and tasty.
with all the dimensions flying around, i’m gonna do 12 inch cake but my baking tin can only hold max upto the brim of 4000ml so i’m just stick to your 3000ml recipe specsso as to avoid any spillage which i’ve encountered with other recipes in the past and would appreciate your take on it and provide your expertise.Thanks.
Also, i’m doing 4 dozens of cupcakes where initially i intended to use a recipe for Victoria Cupcakes but after tasting your Madeira cake recipe, i’ll stick to yours. i foresee to fill in my cupcake “cups” with 3/4 batter which please advise will it be sufficient and also your expertise on whether will the madeira recipe be good enough for cupcakes. Thanks again.
PS: right now it’s morning in Singapore and i’ll be baking the cakes tonight, doing the crumb coat+filling+frosting tomorrow. 🙂
Hello,
I’m so sorry that your comment seems to have slipped through the net! I’m sure I’m too late for this cake but for future reference….
I would always stick to the volume that your cake tin can hold so you are right to use the ingredients for the 3000ml size tin.
I don’t tend to use this recipe for cupcakes as it is quite a firm sponge and people usually want a light and fluffy cupcake. I tend to stick to a more Victoria Sponge mixture for cupcakes. I’d love to hear how you got on if you did give the Madeira mix a go though.
Apologies again for missing your deadline but I hope these help for the future.
EmmaMT
Hi Emma,
Could you tell me how fresh this madeia lasts for – is it the normal 2 week time frame (i.e., 1 week to decorate and 1 week to eat?
Hello,
I usually bake on a Wednesday, cut and cover on a Thursday and finish off decorating on Friday for a party on the Saturday. Once the cut the cake lasts about a week.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Thank you so much for your madeira cake recipe size chart, I’m new to cake baking and have just baked the 8″ round version in a 3″ deep tin and it’s turned out fab I’m so pleased, I just have to master the crumb coating and covering in fondant bit now ha ha! Thank you!
My pleasure. Have fun with the crumb coating. It’s a doddle once you get the nack of it.
Good luck
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, i’m doing the 8 inch round all in one tin method, but could you tell me what oven temp i should cook at and roughly how long for 🙂 thank you
What is a Madeira cake?
Hi Cal,
Madeira cake is a firm sponge cake which is ideal for using when shaping or layering tiers. It has a dense consistency and is really tasty. Give it a go. I’m sure you’d like it.
EmmaMT
x
Hi Emma wondered what size eggs you use in your recipe please?
Hello,
I use large eggs as I find they produce a fluffier cake.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Thank you
What size eggs do you use Emma?
Your original sizing post says 150mls of hot water but the table says 9tbs which is 135mls?
I use 150ml now and it makes a lovely light cake.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma,
I am sooooo glad that I found your blog! I’m planning on making my little boy’s 1st birthday cake (Mickey Mouse clubhouse!) in a few weeks and have been searching for a really good madeira cake recipe for the 12” and 16cm dome tins I have. I was wondering if you have anything on your pages about fondant measurements/ weights for covering sq/round cakes as I’m struggling to work out how much I’ll need? Thanks so much for your help!
Jen x
super recipe – many thanks. I baked 2 x 10″ dia cakes and both ended up 75mm / 3″ trimmed height. I used them to make a tiffany lamp cake. Photos on my blog and I’ve back linked to your site.
OMG!!!! That is incredible! I can’t believe that’s cake. You are an amazing decorator!
Thanks for the compliment.
EmmaMT
x
p.s. for anyone wanting to see this cake check out the link below
http://www.siliconemoulds.blogspot.co.uk/
Hi Emma,
I need to make an 8″ square cake, but only have sandwich tins, will it be okay to split the 8″ recipe between the two tins? How long would you say to cook for?
Thank you 🙂
Nikki x
Hi Nikki,
Thanks for your question. I’ve never made Madeira cake in a sandwich tin before. I think it will probably be okay as long as you reduce the temperature by 10ºC and watch them like a hawk! The cakes will bake a lot quicker if they are in more shallow tins. Try and bake the cakes on the same shelf as that will give you a more even rise.
I hope that helps. Let me know how you get on
EmmaMT
I’ve baked the 6″ for 45mins and it’s still raw in the middle! What am I doing wrong?
Hello,
Do you have an oven thermometer? Most of the time when this happens the oven isn’t as hot as the dial says it is? My oven differs a lot on any given day!
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
I just had this problem and popped an oven thermometer in, my oven is 20 degrees out! Thanks for the tip!
Hi Emma love the site! I’m making christening cakes soon so having a trial run today! I’m making a 10″ square chocolate cake and a 8 1/2″ square mederia cake. I just made up your ingredients for a 10″ round chocolate cake and seems way too much mixture, I only put 2/3 of the mixture in the tin else was worried it would all come out over the top?
Hello,
Square cakes take up more ingredients so as a very general rule of thumb when baking a square cake using a round recipe you go down a size so for a 10″ square you would need a 9″ round. I am in the process of working out the exact ingredients for square cakes at the mo. I don’t get asked to make them that often so I never did a chart but you’re the fourth person to ask this week so I think there is a need!!
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Thanks! Do you have tips on icing a square cake, find it quite hard to get neat corners?
Hi,
I was just wondering how you calculated the different amounts? Was this through direct experiment? When I calculated the difference my measurements came out as the ones on the right:
Sponge 6″ 9″ 12″ total 9″ 12″
butter/g 75 188 280 543 168.75 300
marg/g 75 188 280 543 168.75 300
caster sugar/g 200 500 750 1450 450 800
vanilla 1 2.5 4 7.5 2.25 4
eggs 3 8 11 22 6.75 12
plain flour/g 225 566 845 1636 506.25 900
baking p/tsp 1.5 4 6 11.5 3.375 6
hot water /tbsp 3 7.5 11 21.5 6.75 12
If yours are tried and tested then I will go with that.
I am doing a 3 tiered stacked cake.
Many thanks
Brendan
Hello,
I use the method as seen on The Pink Whisk by Ruth Clemens (From the Great British Bake Off) see my post about this on the link below. Basically I measure how much volume the cake tin can hold and compare it with the cake tin I want to use. So if an 8″ holds 2200ml and my original recipe is the 6″ which holds 1200ml I do this
2200/1200 = 1.8333 so I times the original ingredients by 1.83 and then round up or down. I nearly always round up the eggs as I think that makes a cake lighter. so far this has worked for me. Sometimes a cake may rise a little higher than expected by that just means I can cut it off and get a really flat surface.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Link here
Thanks so much for this super helpful post 🙂
I am making a 12″ square madeira how long should I cook it for in a fan assisted oven? I need to bake tonight.
Hi,
Recipe tastes great what I can’t understand is the timings you list never ever work out for me. I usually have to add about 50% more time on. Any idea why?
Hello,
I would guess your oven isn’t the temperature that the dial is indicating. I may be a bit lower. I always use an oven thermometer so I know what temp I’m at.
EmmaMT
Hi, I’m thrilled to see your tin size recipe chart. I’m making a giant flower covered towered wedding cake for a friend(nor done it before)!! Sorry if you’ve said already but what size eggs should be used?
Also does this recipe freeze well as I need to make 8 cakes to make the tower?
Hello,
I use large eggs now as they make a lighter cake but I used to use medium which still turn out a decent cake. Large would be my preference though.
The un decorated cake does freeze really well and once defrosted I can’t tell that it isn’t fresh. Icing on the other hand doesn’t freeze so well.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Thanks Emma,
I made the 10″ round cake today following your recipe but sadly it didn’t cook too well in the centre and rose well above tin height and hit the shelf above! I had it in the oven for over 2 hours, starting at 180 but i turned in down after an hour once I’d realised it wasn’t cooking in the centre.
I had my daughter helping me out and then my poorly 11 month son in the mix half way through which caused some distraction – I missed putting flour in after each egg and didn’t alternate adding the flour and water but did do both in 3 goes. I’m also worried that I had the mixer on too high. Would this have caused air bubbles as there was a huge one in the centre?
I need to nail this as I am making a stacked wedding cake of 2×12″, 10″, 8″ 6″ to get a 60ish cm height, which will be covered in sugar paste flowers which I have been making for the past month.
Please could you suggest a good icing/frosting that I’ll be able to mount the flowers in?
Thanks for all your help so far, Helen xx
Hi, I love your blog and I am going to use your Madeira cake recipe to make a two tiered round christening cake very excited!! My question is can you use self-raising flour instead of plain and raising agent?? And do you just prefer to use plain flour or is there a sufficient reason why??
Thanks in advance for your help
Vicky xx
I’ve used this recipe a number of times now and just sub the plain flour for self raising and omit the baking powder. Comes out lovely
Thanks Sarah Jane. That’s really useful. I’ve only ever mixed the last of my flours together in an emergency and that always turns out ok.
EmmaMT
Hello,
Did you see Sarah Jane’s comment? She uses the self raising flour and omits the baking powder. I’ve done this before when I’ve run out of plain and it works fine. I just like to have more control over the way the cake bakes and I find I have better results with plain.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
forgive me for being blonde but where do i add the hot water? first time trying madeira as i usually use vanilla sponge but its too soft for what i need xxxx
For the best result split the water and flour into three and add them alternately. For some reason this makes a much lighter, tastier cake than if you add all the flour then all the water.
Have fun
EmmaMT
x
What gas number do your Madeira bake on please I don’t have a fan oven x
Hello, It’s gas mark 4. You lucky thing to have a gas oven. I’m sure they bake better cakes!
Have fun baking
EmmaMT
The cakes turned out fantastic really high I couldn’t believe it they were higher than the tins good job I had paper round to support it lol , I am converted I won’t be using any other recipe from now on ty so much for sharing xx
Thanks Lyn. Such kind words.
EmmaMT
Hi Emma
please help me I’m baking a 3 tier cake for my son’s 1st birthday and I have the recipe for a 7 and 9″ round tin of your chocolate madeira cake .
If i was to bake the top tier 5 ” how much of each ingredient would I need to make this?
Thank you so much
Sharon
Hi Sharon,
That sounds like a great cake to be making. I don’t have a 5″ tin so if you would like to measure the volume of your tin (by filling it with water and letting me know how many ml’s it holds) I can work it out.
EmmaMT
Hi Emma,
I found this blog last week whilst looking for a recipe for a birthday cake and I just wanted to say thank you so much for your size charted recipe.
This is the first Madeira cake I’ve ever tried to make and went like a dream. I did it in one tin and sliced off the (slightly) domed top, then cut it in half. It was perfectly cooked through, moist and solid enough to hold up to the icing decoration. Everyone who ate some said how tasty it was.
I will definitely be using this recipe for all my future celebration cakes… whatever their size! ;0)
Thanks Karen, that’s great to hear. I love to eat up all those domes!
Happy baking
EmmaMT
Hi I will try this cake in the next few days but I would like to know what butter and margarine you used please and I f I was to bake the 12 inch cake would it be ok to bake half first then the second half of the batter as I only have one 12 inch round pan, as I find it easy to bake in two tins saves me cutting it in half as I always end up with a wonky cake. Thanx.
Hello,
I use Flora margarine and Sainsburys own brand butter for the cake (not the really cheap one- the next one up) and for buttercream I only use President Butter as it tastes the best.
I tend to not leave cake mix sitting around if I can help it as this stops the cake rising as much when it’s baked. I would probably split the recipe in half and mix two lots to avoid this.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma
Thanx for the efficient reply, I will try the same butter and margarine. Thank you for the advice on splitting the recipe, would you think it’s fine to split or is it better to bake the cake as a whole recipe.
Hi Emma
I’m excited to try out your Madeira recipe as other recipes I’ve used turn out too dry.
I’m making a 7″ top tier for my sister’s wedding. I read lots of your comments.
Should I use 150ml of hot water?
When you add the flour and water in separate batches do you finish with the water?
Do I need to wrap my cake tin and cover or is this just for large cakes?
Thanks so much!
🙂
Hello,
Thanks for your questions. For a 7″ tin I use 4 ½ tablespoons of water. I do tend to end on water when adding the flour but I don’t think it makes too much difference. I would wrap the cake tin in baking paper as it keeps the outside of the cake nice and soft but it’s completely up to you. I cover cakes when I want them to be really flat.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, thanks for this wonderful job. I have got 9″ round and 8″ square tins that are just 1.5″ deep. I so want to make this cake, can you please help me convert your 3″ inch deep measurements to suite my tins??? It would be really lovely.
Sure can. If you measure the volume of water that the tins can hold (in ml) up to the depth you want your cakes to be I can work that out for you.
EmmaMT
Thanks Emma,
For my round tin, it’s about 1350mls and for my square one its about 1500 mls of water.
Hi Emma,
I have tested you recipe with success and now need to make 2x 12″,10″, 8″ and 6″ for a wedding this month! The bride would like it to be lemon flavour. Is there an easy way of using this recipe with added lemon or will I need to use a different recipe.
I will be stacking the cakes but am not sure what to sandwich them with as I don’t want it to dissappear into the sponge under the weight of the layers. Would it be best to use a lemon curd rather than butter icing or both?
Also do you have a good recipe for the outter icing/frosting that will set fairly stiff to hold my icing flowers and leaves as decoration all over?
Any help is much appreciated xx
Hi Emma, I have seen that you have replied to comments since I wrote to you so I am just checking that you have seen my message? I also wrote a while back and didn’t get a response but have had responses from you previously.
I know my questions aren’t directly related to your recipe but I would really appreciate any experienced advice you can offer.
Many thanks Helen
Hellen – Hello! I saw your question on this site and decided to answer to tell you that I have often used lemon in a madeira cake and it works really well. Traditionally, madeira cake was always flavoured with lemon, so I felt quite safe when I experimented with mine. I made sure that the lemons were as fresh as I could get them and unwaxed of course. Good luck!
Thanks Lynne, that’s great to know.
EmmaMT
Hi Helen,
Sorry your questions seem to have slipped through the net. I’ve missed a few by trying to read comments on my phone when I’m out and about and I think it sends them into a bloggers black hole! So sorry. I’m not ignoring you- honest. Also you can ask me any questions – related to the post or not. I’ll always try and help.
So, now I’m not sure which questions need answering so I’ll have a go at both!
I’ve had a few people recently ask for a lemon Madeira cake recipe. I feel a blog post coming on!
For a Lemon version of my Madeira cake you can just omit the vanilla essence and add the juice and rind of one lemon to the 8″ cake. For different sizes I would add a little more or less. You can also make a lemon sugar syrup – which is something I’ve been testing recently for vanilla cakes (not with lemon obviously!)
How to makelemon sugar syrup.
Dissolve 50g of sugar in 50ml of water in a saucepan then add the juice of one lemon. Set aside to cool while your cake is baking. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven brush it with the syrup. This locks in the moisture and adds to the cake. It doesn’t turn it into a lemon drizzle cake – more adds a subtle zing
I don’t like lemon curd (but I know I am in the minority) When I make a lemon cake I add lemon juice and zest (but no vanilla essence) to the buttercream and leave out the jam. I taste test as I add the lemon to get the right flavour. If you want to use lemon curd as well I would stick to plain buttercream or it may be lemon overkill.
When you stack your cakes you need to add a thin cake board to the bottom of each tier and use posts/dowels for each board to sit on. This will take the weight of each cake and prevent the buttercream filling getting squashed. See this post on how to stack a cake if you need to. here
I use royal icing to ‘glue’ decorations onto my cakes. Sometimes I use a store bought one (the purple box) or I make my own which is better but takes longer.
For Royal icing recipe and instructions to make it have a look at this post on Baby cookies I made
I think that answers all your questions but if I have left anything off just ask again. I’m back from the land of wet camping now!
EmmaMT
x
Hi Emma, thanks so much for getting back to me.
I have already baked the cakes but I am yet to construct it so your advice regarding the dowel and boards is very crucial as I had only planned on using 1 large dowel through the centre of the cake as a whole.
Having now read your post on stacking cakes with dowel I will definitely do it properly.
I have a tower of 8 cakes(2 of each size 12″ – 7″).
I had planned to slice each cake in half and alternate layers of lemon curd and butter icing throughout each size. I will then cover the stacked cake with royal icing which I will then cover with sugarpaste flowers of all shapes and sizes.
I am wondering if I will be able to get away with using a board between every other cake? I obviously don’t want the cake to be wonky or fall over but I am now over budget and I will lose some of the filling layers due to adding boards between the cakes! What to do??
I hope you’re camping trip wasn’t too washed out. We are going to Wales for a weeks camping on our first family holiday after the wedding. I really hope it doesn’t rain!
Helen xx
I tried a 12″ madeira cake recipe before and even though I pput in the Wilton heating core, it still didn’t cook properly in the middle. How can I stop this happening again, as I will be making your recipe this week. Thanks!
Hello,
I’ve never used a heating core before. When I bake my cakes and it doesn’t bake throughout it’s usually one of three things.
1. The tin is the wrong size for the recipe I’m using.
2. The oven is too hot- especially with fan ovens. I always bake without the fan on. If you can’t turn it off lower the temperature from 180ºC to 160ºC. That usually does the trick.
3. I don’t wrap the cake on the outside with paper. This is something I have trialed a lot and it’s been brilliant. By wrapping the tin you stop the outside baking too quickly before the inside is done. Check out this post where I explain how.
I really hope that helps
EmmaMT
Help! I have a problem. I am in the process of making my son’s wedding cake (for next Saturday 16th Aug). They wanted chocolate cakes and I couldn’t leave it any later to make them. I have made both to your recipe and they have turned out beautifully as always. They also wanted the cakes covered in brown chocolate fondant which I haven’t used before. I have found it quite difficult to work with and I think possibly the hot weather hasn’t helped! I have covered the 9″ cake today and I really am not very pleased with the finished look! It’s quite lumpy and there are a few small cracks around the edge of the cake. If I was to roll out more fondant and put it over the existing cake, would this work and how would I go about it? Please could you give me some advice as to what I could do to rescue the cake!!! I think I may have rolled the icing out too thinly! I’m running out of time. I would be so grateful for your help. P.S. I love your website and have made both your Madeira and Choc Madeira quite a few times now and I’ve had lots of nice comments. Thank you!
Right. Don’t panic! Everything is fixable.
It is probably the hot weather that is causing you the trouble. I covered Darcey’s cake in chocolate icing last week and I had exactly the same problem. It was really sticky and I just couldn’t do anything with it without it sticking to my hands or the rolling pin! It did however taste fab.
I think in your case it probably is rolled out too thinly. Usually when cracks appear it’s because the sugarpaste is too thin or too dry. If it’s thick enough you can rub it gently with the soft fleshy part of your hand until the cracks disappear and then you can smooth it over again with a smoother to give a nice even appearance. I would use the first layer of sugarpaste as a base. Roll out some more. For a round cake you’ll need around 1.1kg and for a square 1.25kg. To add the second layer use a damp (not wet) sponge or paint brush to dampen the sides and top of the cake. You won’t need to wet the whole cake just the bottom and top edge on the sides and a little on the top. Cover the cake in exactly the same way you would for a first layer. I think that leaving the first layer overnight to harden up a little will only help.
I hope this helps. I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end. Let me know how you get on
EmmaMT
x
Thank you so much for getting back to me Emma, you really are a life saver! I will leave it overnight and follow your instructions. Thank you so so much for yur help and advice. I’ll let you know how I get on. Eirlys x
Hi, it’s me again Emma! Re the chocolate fondant that didn’t like the heat. Well I covered the existing fondant by just damping the covered cake and it worked a treat, thank you. However when I came to covering the bottom layer (12″ Cake) I again had the problem, but this time I really don’t think I had rolled out the fondant too thinly, neither was it the heat! I took a second shot at it and it’s well…. ok but am really disappointed with the finished product. It’s much too late to re-do and quite honestly, I never want to use the brown chocolate fondant ever again!! Is it me or is it difficult to work with? I’ve worked with white chocolate fondant and had no problems at all but the brown choc fondant is very oily and marks very easily. I’m also worried that I have baked the cakes too soon although there is nothing I can do about it. The chocolate madeira sponges look fab and are nice and moist so all I can do now is hope! I would welcome your comments. As I mentioned in my previous comment, you really are a life saver and your comments are so helpful. Many thanks. Eirlys
Hi Eirlys I mix dark chocolate cocoa powder into fondant it’s delicious and much easier to work with Gemma x
Hello,
Thanks for your tip. I’ve never heard of that before but it sounds like the perfect solution. I’ll definitely be giving that a go. I hope your advice is in time to help Eirlys out.
EmmaMT
Hi Gemma. Thank you for the tip! Do you just knead it into the white fondant until you’ve got the desired colour? I’ll have a trial run. Thank you again.
Eirlys
Hello,
I’m sorry you’ve had such a bad experience with the chocolate sugarpaste. I don’t think it’s you at all. The chocolate one can be really sticky. I’m sure it’s not as bad as you think it is. We’re all our worst critics.
I tend to make my Madeira cakes on Wednesday for delivery on Saturday but once sealed (ie covered in buttercream and sugarpaste) they keep for a week before cutting. I’ve had a friend who was even eating the cake a week after it was cut and it was fine. If you are really, really worried about how early you have baked your cake you could make another (don’t swear at me yet!) and cover the top in buttercream and sugarpaste and have the kitchen cut it behind the scenes. This is a common practice as many tall cakes use polystyrene dummies for the larger bottom tiers to add to the decoration.
I really like Gemma’s idea about the cocoa powder. I’ve never heard of that before but it’s definitely worth a go.
Good luck and let me know how you get on. We’re rooting for you here!
EmmaMT
x
Thanks for your reply Emma. I think I’ll just make myself scarce when the cake is cut up and handed around!!! I will certainly let you know how I get on. I haven’t the time to make another cake now but thanks for the tip. Cream roses are finished so I’ve just got to put everything together now. Keep your fingers crossed for me and thank you for all your help. Eirlys
Hi yes I just need it in it’s very messy but tastes lovely and you can make it as chocolaty as you like if it goes a bit dry just add some trex. I’ve also made chocolate sugar paste by mixing it with coco form this is lovely but much more expensive. Great if you want white chocolate sugarpaste x
Hi, this looks great, I’m making a wedding cake with a 6, 9 and 12″ tier. Where is the method for making the cake? I can only see the ingredients. Thanks!
Hello,
Here’s the link to make the Madeira cake.
Happy baking
EmmaMT
Fantastic site EmmaMT
Have a question, I live in France and am about to make 4 tiers of madeira for a wedding cake,my question is in France flour comes with the rising agent in it, do you think I should still add the baking powder/
Thanks Lin
Hi Lin,
Thanks for your question. I have made this cake with self raising flour in place of plain flour and just added ½ tsp of baking powder for good measure and it’s come out fine and dandy. I’ve not used any French flour before so if I was you I would do a test run on a small cake first just to be on the safe side.
Let me know how you get on
EmmaMT
x
I’ve tried the 8″ at the correct heat and temp as the chart says and it’s always very undercooked at the time stated about and does need at least anothe 30-45 mins
Hello,
Thanks for your comment. A few people have mentioned this to me so thank you for bringing it to my attention. I am in the process of re-testing the timings for all the sizes of cakes. Once I have done this I’ll amend the post.
EmmaMT
Hi please dnt mind but r u using medium or large eggs in this recipe
Hello,
I use mainly large eggs but medium work just as well. Large eggs make lighter cakes.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma
When defrosting your cakes, do you unwrap and leave to thaw at room temperature or in fridge?
Helen
Hello,
I always defrost at room temperature. I try to never put a cake in the fridge other than when doing a crumb coating. Just remove all the wrapping and place the cake on a cooling rack for 30-60 minutes.
hope that helps
EmmaMT
Thank you Emma, the cakes turned out lovely after defrosting, just as moist as when first baked.
Helen
Hi i hope you don’t mind me asking but what size eggs do you use please as im never sure to use medium or large? Thanks you Jo
Hi i was wondering could you tell me how much cocoa i need to put in a 6in cake please.
Hello,
I think you need this post here on Chocolate Madeira cake
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, I’ve got a ten inch square cake to make this week, would you recommend using the ten inch recipe or the twelve inch? Jill x
Hi Jill,
I think I’ve missed your deadline but I would measure the volume of water that your cake tin can hold so that the water level is 1cm from the top and see which cake size is closest. The amount of water volume each size tin can hold is written on the chart under the tin size.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
I’m looking or a recipe for 8 inch square madeira cake and was hoping you had a chart for square cakes.
Thanks Charlotte
Hello,
I’m working on a chart for square cakes at the mo. In the mean time why not check out what volume your cake can hold in water in ml and see if it’s the same as any of the round cakes. That’s the recipe you’ll need to use.
Check back soon as I hope to have finished testing the square timings soon
EmmaMT
Hi Emma,
I stumbled across your website last week looking for cake recipe ideas as I’m hoping to make my wedding cake next year.
I loved reading your blogs and your advice is greatly appreciated – I’m sure it will play a great part in my preparation from here on.
I usually make a simple sponge cake which is quite moist however I knew I needed a denser cake for stacking. I tried your madeira recipe for a 6″ round cake just as a start and it came out quite dry. I did use all butter but next time I’m going to try half butter half margarine.
I do however think a few other factors may have affected the cake.
I have a fan oven that I can’t change to conventional but my top oven I can so I thought I’d try it in there instead. After 35 minutes it was still raw in the middle, so I left it a further 10 minutes, still the same, another 10 minutes, the same and then after a further 12 minutes it was finally done. It had risen quite a lot and the outside was overcooked.
I think my top oven probably isn’t the right temperature so going to revert back to my fan oven.
Could you please help with temperatures and timings on the above chart with a fan oven and I would really appreciate your thoughts as to what you thought went wrong.
Many thanks in advance.
Denice
Hi Denice,
How exciting to be making your own wedding cake. Yes you’re right you do need a ‘foundation’ cake when you want to stack a cake. Madeira is a nice firm cake for this. I should start by letting you know that I am in the process of re-testing the timings for the Madeira cakes as they do seem to take longer than expected, but with 14 cakes to make and test it’s taking me a little longer than planned!
It’s fine to use a fan oven, I just prefer the results I get when my fan is turned off. Non fan temperatures should be 180C but fan ovens should be 160C. It shouldn’t take too much longer but it’s always a good idea to test a cake.
I now wrap my cake tins in paper when I bake as it slows down the outside of the cake from baking before the inside is ready. This is a common problem for bakers. Madeira is also prone to doming. Just look at the ones in Waitrose. Domed every last one!
I hope that helps a little. Be sure to check back at the end of the month when I’ll have finished testing the rest of the cake sizes. Till then this is the post I wrote about wrapping cake tins.
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, please could you let me know what quantities I would need for a Madeira cake in an 8.5″ hemisphere tin
Hello,
If you can measure the volume of water that your tin can hold in ml so that the water level is around 1cm from the top I can calculate that for you.
EmmaMT
Emma, thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly – I need to make a ladybird cake by Sunday for my little girl’s 1st birthday, so it is appreciated even more! The cake tin takes approx 1750ml of water leaving 1cm from the top. I followed a 6 egg sponge mix recommended by the tin retailer and it took 2 hours to cook! Although the cake is firm it seems to have a weird greasy, crumbly texture almost like a cookie hence opting for a different recipe if possible.
Hello, As your sphere tin is so close to my 7″ cake on this post that is the one I would use. It will probably take around 60-80 minutes to bake (well that’s what a round tin will take) so keep a close eye on your cake as I’ve never baked a sphere shape before and it may take less.
Good luck and don’t forget to share your cake on the CakesBakesAndCookies Facebook page so I can see the fantastic end result.
EmmaMT
x
Hi Emma, I’ve read lots of the comments and I apologise if this has been answered already, but I assume you put all the mixture in one tin? pam
I’ve just made the 8 inch in a Pyrex bowl (practice run for making a turtle for a 40th) and it was the best cake I’ve ever made. I had to drop the temp a little because it wS a bowl not a tin and it took 100 mins but it was fab. Thank you ever so much, I wouldn’t have known how to do this if it wasn’t for you, I’m only a home baker. I’m making the chocolate one next week to make the actual cake in a 9 inch Pyrex bowl……. Fingers crossed…… Thank you Emma, you are an angel!!!
Hey, I’m only a home baker too!
Thanks for your lovely comment. So glad I could help. Feel free to post a picture of your cake over on the CakesBakesAndCookies Facebook page so I can see the finished cake. I’d love to see it.
EmmaMT
Hi Emma
You saved my bacon! I did my first wedding cake at the weekend and the weeks leading up to the ‘big bake’ were fraught with trying to find a recipe that covered all the sizes of the tiers…12, 10, 8 and 6. I subscribe (or at least I did) to a well known cake decorating tutorial site and no matter how much I searched the site there was no answer to the scaling up question. The question had been asked MANY times by various members (who were also paying nearly £10 a month for helpful info) yet every member of the team refused to answer the question helpfully. The proverbial ‘icing on the cake’ came for me when I came across a reply from the owner of the company who basically told one lady that it was something she would have to find out for herself through practice, that she would not and should not be expected to ‘reveal’ the holy grail of the baking world just because a paying member had asked! Needless to say I have now cancelled my subscription! So again THANK YOU for your MASSIVELY helpful post you saved the day and many many more bakng days to come! x
Oh My Goodness! Some people are all about the money! I’m in the process of writing a book all about Madeira cake and I’m re-testing all the round and square cake sizes to be sure they are all as perfect as can be. It’s taking me for ever – not to mention a ton of expense (it’s a lot of eggs!) but I wouldn’t dream of holding back answering a question in order to sell a book that holds the answer. That’s ridiculous! Surely the point of a blog is to share your knowledge and learn as you go.
I’m really glad I could help out. Well done for making your first wedding cake. They’re nerve racking aren’t they?
EmmaMT
x
Hi, love all the tips on here. I’m about to do my first 2 tier Madeira using your recipe for my daughter’s 6th birthday “Frozen” cake (9 and 7 inch). I’ve made loads if 8 inch sandwich cakes before but…
Is it easier to do sandwiches or cut a full height cake?
Do I need to use a thin board for the top tier or can I stack straight on?
I am doing straightforward decorations – ready to roll fondant icing with snowflakes on, figurine on top. I will have a go at doing “ice shards” for the top but will just leave off if they don’t work out! Just want to get the actual cake right!
Hello,
I used to make two separate cakes but now I just cut one deep cake in half. I’ve mastered the measurements and it’s a lot less fuss.
I always add a thin board when layering cakes as it means I can make sure the top cake is supported with dowels and it’s easier to get the cakes straight (I’m still mastering this!!) If you dowel a cake it’s also easier to transport it.
I like the sound of ice shards. Be sure to post a picture of your cake on the CakesBakesAndCookies.com Facebook page so we can see the finished cake. It sounds great and I love to see readers creations.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
x
help! I’ve made my 7″ cake which looks great. i’ve just put my 10″ inch cake in the oven and realised i don’t understand the cooking time.on the 12″ cake cooks quicker than the 9″?
Confused!! Thinking the 10″ should take 120+?
Panic over 🙂 In the end I checked every 10-15 mins after 90 minutes. When it seemed cooked I gave it 10 more minutes (total of 130 mins). It is reasonably brown but still looks appetising and I am confident it is cooked (my biggest fear). So totally happy.
Tomorrow I will cut and fill and put the icing on ready to decorate on Friday. My mum arrives tomorrow so I have a bit of help! This recipe is great and if I can do it anyone can!
P.S. I had to mix in 2 halves as I don’t have a big enough bowl!
Hello,
You seem to be the Madeira cake expert and I’m really pleased that you’ve blogged about your experience in making variations of this classic recipe.
I have a quick question. I am about to make a birthday cake that requires a 7″ image topper so I’m going to make an 8″ madeira cake to leave room for decorating a border. My problem is that my tins are not deep enough but I do have two of them that are about 2″ high. Will the recipe above work if I split the mixture between the two tins? I am guessing that it will alter the timing but by how much?
Thank you and I look forward to your response.
Hello,
Thanks for your comment. I used to get into all sorts of confusion when I doubled or halved a recipe so now I measure the amount a cake tin will hold and use the corresponding recipe on this chart. So, to measure your tin if it has a loose bottom line the tin with a plastic bag without holes in then measure in how much water the tin will hold so it’s about 1cm from the top. This amount of liquid in ml will indicate which cake tin size to follow. If you let me know the measurement in ml I can work it out for you.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Wow, thanks for such an efficient reply!
I’ve poured the water into the jug and have 700ml in the one tin. The diameter of the tin is 8″ and the depth is slightly less than 2″.
I’m glad you got back to me now. I’m shooting the rest of the week and won’t get a chance to reply to comments.
For a cake with a volume of 700ml you wil need:-
45g Butter – At room temperature
45g Margarine At room temperature
120g Caster Sugar
1tsp Vanilla essence
2Eggs
130g Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking powder
2tbsp Hot Water
I haven’t baked a cake of this size but I would imagine it will take around 30 minutes. Check it after 20 and then see how you go.
Let me know how you get on
Happy baking
EmmaMT
Thanks again. So, quite similar to what I would do with two halves of a Victoria Sponge. This should hopefully be simple!
Just to check did you mix the cocoa powder in the chocolate fondant or white ? I have a pirate ship to make this weekend HELP also I am going to sandwich with gaunash sorry about spelling will that be ok ?
Hello, I bet your ganache filled cake was delish! That’s how Peggy Porschen fills her cakes!
I haven’t tried the mixing the cocoa into the chocolate paste. How did it go?
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, I am making my sons christening cake which I need to drop at the venue Saturday afternoon. I am struggling for time this week trying to get ready, if I made the cake tomorrow do you think that would be too early? I am a bit worried about the cake going dry before Sunday.
Claire
Hi Claire,
So sorry I haven’t been able to pick up comments this week. I’ve been filming in Leeds. Just to re-assure you I make my MAdeira cake on Wednesday for delivery on Saturday or Sunday. It’s a really good cake for giving you time to decorate and not need to do everything in one day.
I hope your cake was a huge success and super delicious. I’m sure it is.
EmmaMT
Hi,
I love your chocolate Madeira recipe-it’s totally yummy. I need to convert it into 2 halves of a sphere tin to make a ball shape. Each half measures 700ml. Do you know which measurements I should be using?
Thanks
Naomi
Hello,
Sorry it has taken me forever to get back to you!!!
For a cake with a volume of 700ml you wil need:-
45g Butter – At room temperature
45g Margarine At room temperature
120g Caster Sugar
1tsp Vanilla essence
2Eggs
130g Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking powder
2tbsp Hot Water
I haven’t baked a cake of this size but I would imagine it will take around 30 minutes. Check it after 20 and then see how you go.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT x
Hi Emma
I am going to try and make my own naked wedding cake in next few weeks with this recipe. I made a lemon drizzle cake this week, but I think I need to adapt a madeira cake with the lemon flavouring, do you think its ok just to add the lemon juice and zest into this recipe? I have also found that my cakes are cooking a lot on the outside but not in the middle. This is in a fan oven, can you suggest any improvements? I have a range .
Thanks
Laura
Hello Laura,
How lovely to be making your own wedding cake. I have made a lemon Madeira cake before. I add the juice and zest of one lemon to an 8″ cake and I don’t add the vanilla essence. I also flavour the buttercream with zest and lemon juice. It’s delicious. Recently I have been adding a sugar syrup to my cakes 10 minutes after they come out of the oven. Sugar syrup is 100g sugar, 100ml water plus vanilla essence (or in this case lemon juice) Just place it all in a saucepan and heat until the sugar is dissolved then set aside to cool a little. Brush is over the cake while it’s still in the cake tin and it will make your cake even more moist and give it an extra kick of lemon flavour.
Larger cakes do quite often bake on the outside before the inside is done. The way I prevent this is by wrapping my cake tin in a few layers of baking paper. This slows down the outside of the baking and gives the inside a chance to catch up. Have a look at this post on how I do this.
It might also be worth turning the temperature down. A fan oven should be at 160ºC.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, you mentioned the sugar syrup, I am freezing the cakes ahead of the big day. so when should I put the sugar syrup on them?
also Will it be ok to bring them out of the freezer the day before? and I guess keep them in the cling film until I take them to the venue to be assembled with buttercream etc?
Just baking the 6 inches!x
Hello,
I take the cake out of the oven and leave it on a cooling rack for five minutes then brush the sugar syrup onto the top of the cake. This stops the cake from continuing to cook and adds moisture to it. The idea is to brush the whole cake in sugar syrup so don’t soak it. Leave your cake for a further ten minutes before you remove it from the tin and allow it to cool completely.
I double wrap my cold cakes in cling film before I freeze them (yes it’s fine to freeze once you’ve added the sugar syrup) To defrost remove all the cling film wrapping and sit it on a cooling rack to thaw thoroughly before covering in any coating. I tend to remove my cakes from the freezer a few hours before I want to decorate them. If you remove it the day before just pop it in an air tight container over night once it’s completely defrosted. If it isn’t defrosted don’t put it in a container or the cake will get soggy – just cover it with a tea towel.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
What’s d difference between butter n margarine? And am I suppose to use the two when baking? Looking forward to your reply. Yetunde
Hello,
Margarine is basically butter with added oil which makes is easier to spread when it’s cold from the fridge. I have made this cake with all butter and all oil and it still tastes good.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, I am making a wedding cake for my Son’s Wedding which is next week. I made the bottom tier weeks ago because its a fruit cake which is a tried and tested recipe of mine so that’s fine. However I have never baked a sponge cake and have been researching for weeks recipes and tips for the top tier. I came across your website / blog today which I have to tell you gave me the confidence to actually bake the cake! Its just come out of the oven and I am very pleased. I followed your recipe for the 8 inch round and the timings were absolutely spot on! Once cool I am going to freeze it until mid week when we will be icing it. I made it earlier just in case I failed and needed to do another one!! So firstly I’d like toThank you for your fabulous blog. Secondly I want the filling to be lemon butter icing but all recipes talk about using a jam filling as well so should I be using Raspberry jam as well? Or lemon curd. I forgot to mention I didnt add vanilla I added zest and juice of lemon for lemon sponge as that’s my future daughter-in-laws favourite.Do you have any tips?!
Kind regards from a very grateful Mother of the Groom. 🙂
Awwwww! Have I missed your cake deadline? I hate it when that happens. Apologies. I get very caught up in work sometimes and struggle to get to reply to comments. I’m going to make that my new years resolution!
I hope your cake turned out well. I’m sure it did. I have made lemon Madeira cake using zest and juice instead of vanilla a few times. Some people use lemon curd instead of the jam but I don’t really like curd so I stick to just the butter cream flavoured with more zest and juice. You can also add a sugar syrup flavoured with lemon when the cake comes out of the oven for extra moisture and zing.
I hope that helps- albeit a bit late!
EmmaMT
Just wondering what the ingredient conversion would be for a 10×8 inch rectangular cake tin?
Hello, you can use the 9″ recipe. You just add up the two lengths of the tin and divide by two.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
This all looks fantastic!and after scrawling through all these comments this one about adding the two sides and dividing to get the rectangular-circular conversionion is exactly what I need!! My tin is 12×8 so I’m going with the 10″ recipe! I’m making a Jack Daniels bottle shaped cake for my boyfriends surprise 30th birthday party this weekend, though I’m not looking forward to trying my hand at writing the label in icing!! I saw your post about being in the process of trying out the 10″ for the baking time so I’m going to play it between the 110 and 130 but keep an eye on it. I’m so excited I’ve found this page as I’m really thinking of going for a job that I have inside knowledge of becoming available next month at the cake shop near me (making and decorating cakes) and this site has given me all I need to get cracking making examples for my c.v. and folio, so thank you!!
Suzanne
Oooooh that sounds so exciting!!!! Good luck. Let me know how you get on. I love the ladies in my cake shop. They are a font of all knowledge and I always seem to learn something new listening in to other peoples questions when they get to the till!
Fingers crossed for you…. and hope the cake/ icing goes well. You can always crack open a bottle of JD if it doesn’t!
EmmaMT
x
Hi
Looking at the table of ingredients for the Madeira cake the 12″ baking time for the cake doesn’t look correct? Can you advise the correct time please? Many thanks
Baking time for 12″ cake I have incorrect email
Hello,
I’ve been re-testing the timings for this cake and I haven’t got as far as the 12″. I made the 10″ and it didn’t come out as tall as I would like so that’s where I am at, at the mo. I think the 12″ will take around 130 minutes but check on it after 110 just to be safe.
Sorry I can’t be more precise. I hope that helps a little!
EmmaMT
(this chart was revised on 15th October 2015)<<<< we are in 2014.
Yep! That’s what happens when you start shooting Christmas in March, do Easter at Christmas and I have just done Valentines in November. My head isn’t always screwed on right!
Thanks for pointing it out. I shall amend that right now.
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, Thankyou for this recipe I have made a trial cake to see how quickly it would go stale and found it keeps moist really well, I will be using it this weekend to make 3 Tunis cakes for family and friends over Christmas, my old all butter recipe went hard too quickly and this recipe is delicious and moist, Christmas greetings and many thanks, Nicky S
Happy Christmas Nicky. x
Thank you for posting the useful chart. I would like to make a madeira cake for a Wilton doll pan but cannot find any homemade recipe sizes? Please could you kindly advise.
Hello,
If you can measure how much water the pan can hold I can tell you how much ingredients you need. Just let me know in ml.
EmmaMT
Hi thank you the Wilton doll cake mold pan holds about 4.5 pints = 2555 ml I am trying the 8 inch recipe (12 oz butter, sugar, self raising flour and 6 oz plaim flour 6 large eggs. I’ve also tried the hot water top fingers crossed this is enough mixture as it looks in between sizes. Baking now (only a tester!) Any one split and jam /butter cream a doll cake looks like it will be very plain otherwise
Hello, I’m so glad I’ve found this page! I want to bake 11 inch Madeira for a birthday cake, can you help me with the ingredients & method & cooking times please? Can I make it in 2 halves to save cutting it? Thanks in advance
Hello,
If you can measure how much water the tin will hold I can work out the ingredients for you. Just let me know in ml. If your tin has a lose bottom just put a plastic bag over the tin to make measuring easier.
You can bake half the ingredients for each layer but I find that each cake domes so much that you end up having to cut anyway the top and have quite a lot of waste (not that off cuts are ever wasted!) It’s usually quicker and easier to make one and cut it in half.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hello, thanks for quick reply! Around 4000ml, this a springform pan & I’ve just realised how much it leaks
Yes, it’s definitely a job to do in the sink!
4000ml is the 10″ recipe so you can follow that from this post. Don’t worry that it’s the same as my 10″. We all measure to different depths and you cake will come out lighter as it can rise more than the 10″ size tins.
Let me know how you get on
EmmaMT
x
am making a foot ball shirt cake i have the shaped tin which is a 2600ml size which maderia size would you recommend 8inch or 9inch please
Hello,
Here are the quantities you will need for a cake tin that holds 2600ml of water
162g butter- at room temperature
162g Margarine- at room temperature
435g caster sugar
2 tea spoon vanilla essence
7 eggs-at room temperature
487g plain flour
3 teasp of baking powder
6½ tbsp hot water
Hope that helps. You’ve inspired a future blog post so thanks
EmmaMT
x
thank you so much will send pic when i have made it
Hey I just used this rescipe for the 8″ in 3″ tin cake turned out well but did spill over a bit. Oven was at 160c fan (was using an oven thermometer) any idea what would’ve caused this
Hello,
I think a few readers who use fan ovens have had the same problem. I think the fan must heat the cake more quickly. In theory the fan oven being set 20 degrees lower should sort this problem. Where did you place the oven shelf. I always set mine just below the middle for non fan oven but I think fan ovens bake better in the exact middle?
I’m baking a cake this week. I shall bake it with the fan on and see what happens.
EmmaMT
Hi, after I baked a10″ square, I felt it wasn’t high enough so I decided to bake the ingredients for 7″ square in a 10″ cake tin because I needed the height, When I took the cake out of the oven it looked baked. When I came to cut into it, it looked like dough inside, please can you tell me why this happened.
Hello,
When using a larger tin the outside of the cake bakes quicker than the inside. So you can often end up with a overdone, hard edge and a nice soft centre.
To avoid soggy middles I wrap the outside of my tins with paper to slow the baking process down enough to allow the centre to bake at the same speed. Have a look at this post for how I wrap my tins.
I hope this helps
EmmaMT
Thanks a lot. i hope to try out your reciepe. please i have 2 questions. how long will the cake keep as i didnt see any preservative ie brandy. also, if i reduce the amount of sugar will it affect the textre of the cake? thanks in advance
Hello,
The cake keeps for ages – have a look at this post…
I haven’t tried this recipe with less sugar. I think it will probably effect the texture as you are making the quantities different and I wouldn’t suggest adding more flour to compensate. I don’t think this cake is overly sweet but it may not taste as great with less sugar. Without trying I just don’t know. If you give it a go let me know how you get on. I’d love to know.
Good luck
EmmaMT
Hello Emma.I have been reading through all of this with much pleasure as I am going to be doing my first ever fruit and sponge wedding cake for my daughter.Obviously the fruit will be the bottom tier lol.Anyway after looking through the net I now know that the Madeira is the best bet to use as its stronger for weight taking.My point of writing is to ask,when it comes to adding the flour etc,do you fold it in to keep the air in it,or beat it,as I really want this cake to be perfect.I am so glad I’ve found this site,judging from the previous posts date,I just hope you are still here 🙂
I’m still here! Hello.
Yes, you should fold in the flour at the end but I have to admit that I’ve whisked it with my hand held before (when I’m in a rush and just need to get it done) and I really couldn’t tell the difference.
When you whisk- rather than fold the flour you are essentially bursting all the air bubbles you created when you whisked the eggs in with the sugar and the butter. These bubbles are what evaporate during baking making the cake light and fluffy.
I hope that helps. Good luck with your cake. Sounds like a good one.
EmmaMT
please can you convert your recipes into ounces
What all of them!!!! LOL!
Sorry, I’m not going to be able to that but if you check out this link on Google you can check the conversions easily.
Sorry
EmmaMT
Hi Emma I have been looking at your revised chart and am wondering why the 9″ had a longer cooking time then the 12″? I have made cakes using your recipe and it is absolutely delicious and always gets good feedback!
Hi Emma I would love to make your red rocket birthday cake with lights for my grandsons 5 the birthday on the 15 the february 2015.I don’t no if you do still read this I hope so.what size cake do I make and what tin shape.please hope you can help thank you.
Hi Linda,
So sorry to have missed your cake deadline. I hope it all worked out well. I am usually pretty good at replying but took a bit of a break to spend time with my daughters over half term.
EmmaMT
Thank you for the recipe and all your hard work regarding the different cakes sizes I made the 7 and 9 inch cakes for my sons first birthday they both came out amazingly well. The sponge was just delightful and I received so many positive comments. The buttercream too was lovely not overly sweet and the table in terms of quantity again mega useful. Loved all the tips regarding the sunflower oil and wrapping in newspaper plus low and slow. Thank you again, I can’t wait to make the choc version.
Thanks for such a lovely comment. You’ve made my day.
EmmaMT
x
Hi Emma, I love your blog and have successfully baked your madeira and choc madeira several times for my sons’ birthdays. Thank you!
I have a query – I am making a lego ninjago head for my son’s 6th birthday and will be baking 2x 8″ rounds to stack on top of each other. I need the top cake to be domed to give the head the right shape: any tips on how to encourage a dome to form? I know you are usually offering tips on how NOT to get a dome!
Thanks, Kate x
Ha ha ha! That’s a first! I literally just answered a comment asking how to not have a dome!
I would bake the cake without any paper around the tin and maybe turn the heat up a tiny bit. That’s usually why cakes dome!
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Thanks Emma! X
Dear Emma,
I followed your recipe for an 8″ tin and the cake rose about an inch above the tin. I did measure the baking powder out carefully and levelled the measuring spoon. So I am not really sure what went wrong. 🙁
Hello,
Unfortunately this is just what happens with Madeira cake. I used to have the same problem so I figured out the best way to fix this problem – namely I keep my oven at a lower temperature – 180ºC (Fan oven160ºC) and I now wrap my cakes in baking paper (which you can see how I do it on this post here) This has really helped a lot over the years!
I hope this helps
EmmaMT
I’m currently looking for madeira cake recipes to try and last night made your recipe. The cake looks great and I’ll be torting it later and am keen to see how it looks inside. I am doing a wedding cake for a friend later this year and she is wanting the inside of each cake to have a layer of red, white and blue cake. I have read all the comments on the post and with all the helpful replies have not come across one about colouring the actual cake. I have tried putting my friend off but she’s determined! I have explained that to get a white cake is hard because of the eggs and fats and she’s ok with this. My concern is the amount of gel/paste/liquid colouring that will be needed to reach the deep shades she wants will compromise the taste and texture of the cake. Does anyone have any experience with this, I’d be forever grateful x
Hello,
I have coloured cake before a few times and you’re right you do have to keep in mind that the base cake mix is a bit yellow. When I want a white buttercream I add Superwhite (Sugarflair Superwhite Icing Whitener 20g
” target=”_blank”>see Superwhite on Amazon) You simply ad this powder to the buttercream and mix it in to get it as white as possible. You can then add true colours. I haven’t used it for cake mixes but it might be worth a try?
Things I learnt when making these cakes – My birthday cake and my friends birthday cake, is that you need to separate the cake mix for each colour before you add the flour, otherwise all the mixing bashes out all the air bubbles in the cake and that’s what gives you a light texture. I would suggest making each colour separately rather than splitting one mix into three bowls and then colouring.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi, I just wanted to say thank you so much for this wonderful chart for madeira cakes. I found your blog a couple of years ago when I was looking for a cake recipe and have used it several times since, for various size cakes. It’s such a handy chart and the cakes are so tasty. Your blog is fantastic x
Thank you Ms Cardiff Mummy. Such a lovely compliment.
EmmaMT
x
Hi emma. Do you have the recipe for 11inch please?
Hi emma. Do you have the recipe for an 11 inch cake please?
Hi Emma
Do you have the recipe for a 10″ square please
Hello,
If you measure the volume of water your cake tin can hold you can compare it to the measurements on the chart. Let me know if it’s not close to the ones on the chart and I’ll work it out for you.
EmmaMT
What ingredients would I need to make a lemon sponge cake 14 ins
Hello,
Here is the ingredients for a 14″ Lemon Madeira cake. I swap out the vanilla essence for the zest and juice of 2 or 3 lemons – depending on your tastes. I would use 2 lemons and then add lemon juice and zest to the buttercream. I would also make a sugar syrup with lemon juice to add to the cake to keep it moist once it’s out of the oven.
14” cake
310g butter
310g Margarine
830g caster sugar
zest and juice of 2-3 lemons
13 eggs
930g plain flour
6 ½ teasp of baking powder
12 ½ tbsp hot water
Bake at 180ºC(160º Fan) for 120-140 minutes
Lemon sugar syrup
150g sugar
150ml water
Juice of one lemon
Place all the ingredients into a saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool a little.
When the cake is taken out of the oven leave on a cooling rack for five minutes before brushing the lemon sugar syrup over the cake with a pastry brush. The idea is to cover the cake but not turn it into a drizzle cake so don’t completely soak the cake. Once the whole of the top has been covered discard whatever syrup is left over.
Leave for another ten minutes before turning the cake out of the tin to cool completely.
I hope this helps
EmmaMT
Hi I baked your maderia 6″ and wasn’t much doming but when I baked the 7″ there is quite a bit of doming so when I cut dome off I’m losing height in the cake. I baked on 160 fan like told. Can’t turn fan off on this oven so how can I fix this. Would maybe 140 and bake for longer help ?
Hello,
I made a 7″ square cake at the weekend using the fan option on my oven and it went really wrong. To prevent doming I wrap the cake tin in baking paper (have a look at this post) and I place a piece of baking paper over the top with a hole in the middle which really helps to keep the cake level. To keep the cake more even you can try scooping the mixture up the sides of the cake tin so the middle is less full. This gives the sides a chance to bake before the middle and when it rises the sides are already at the right height.
I hope this helps.
EmmaMT
Can you tell me what ingredients I would need for a chocolate maderia 11inch square – tin measured to be 4400ml. Thanks 😀
Hello,
I’d use the 12″ round cake ingredients. It will be fine.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
I need to bake a rectangular/oblong cake measuring 16.5″ x11.4″ and 3″ high. Would you be able to help with the measurements im lost!!
Hi Laura,
If you can measure the volume of liquid your tin can hold so that it is around 1-2cm from the top I can help (or you can see if it is close to the volumes on this chart.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, is there any update on the baking time for a 10″ cake? Also is it right that a 9″ cake takes longer than a 12″ cake? Thanks! Kate x
Hello,
I have re-measured my 10″ cake tin and baked a cake in it yesterday to double check the timing and it took exactly 2 hours to bake (120 minutes) at 180ºC without the fan on.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Emma, I just wanted to thank you for these recipes and let you know how invaluable they are to me! I am making my own wedding cake for my wedding in August (three tier, 10″ 8″ 6″) and was really stressing out about it. Your recipes are perfect and taste great. They’re also really versatile when it comes to flavouring, so now all I’m doing is “practicing” and experimenting with different flavours (tough job, I know). So far I’ve tried replacing 1/3 flour with cocoa and adding a teaspoon of coffee for a chocolate cake with salt caramel filling, a coffee and walnut cake with coffee cream filling, replacing 1/3 flour with ground almonds & adding lemon zest for an almond cake with sour cherry filling and will experiment at the weekend with a strawberry vanilla variety! Then we just have to make a final decision for our final three layers…
Again, thank you so much for these recipes – I wasn’t much of a baker before and this has really given me confidence that my wedding cake won’t be a complete disaster!
Harriet
Thanks Harriet, your message made my day!
You cake sounds fantastic! I love the combinations. Keep on baking
EmmaMT
x
Hi Emma. Thanks a lot for the recipe! Never made madeira and i was a bit worried about it. What if it doesn’t work out. But it did and it tastes fantastic! From now on i’m only using your recipe! Perfect as it is. The only thing i changed is that i wanted a taller cake so i can cut it into three layers. I used the amounts of the 8 inch cake and baked it in a 7inch p. Came up beautifully and got three perfect layers out of it! Thanks again!
Nice one!
EmmaMT
Why does my Madeira cake always dip in the middle tastes wonderfully but I always have to trim the top .thanks very much for the recipe. eileen
Eileen you are one of only a few people who have this problem! One of the most common questions I get is “How do I stop my Madeira cake from doming so much”! It’s a cake that is notorious for rising up in the middle and cracking!.
There are two main reasons why a cake sinks in the middle.
1. The oven door was opened during the first half of the cake baking
2. The cake being taken out of the oven before it’s finished baking.
Other than that I’m not sure what went wrong.
EmmaMT
Hi. Just wondering why the 12inch Madeira cake has a shorter baking time than the 9 inch? X
Hello,
I tested this cake ages ago and I think my tin isn’t a full 3″ deep. I made a 10″ last week and it took exactly 120 minutes to bake so I’d check in after 100 minutes with a 12″ and see how it’s going. I need to re-test the 12″ again- I just need to finish off the 10″ that’s sitting on my kitchen worktop! I’m eating as fast as I can!!
Hope that helps
EmmaMt
Hi I have found your table for the ingredients to make the Madeira cake, I need the details of the one that isn’t listed an 11 inch round, please, doing an 11 and 9 inch for a 50th wedding anniversary, Madeira always seems a lit more sturdy to construct.
Many thanks
Mel
Hi Mel,
If you could measure the amount of liquid the cake tin can hold so the water is around 2cm from the top I can work out the measurements for you.
EmmaMT
I’m so glad I found this, I am making a 3 tier cake (12″,10″ and 8″) for a 60th birthday in July and then the same again for a wedding in August! I will let you know how it goes. How long would the cake keep for if stored in an air tight container? I’m hoping to make them slightly in advance but wouldn’t want to leave them to long, before piping buttercream roses on them the day before! Any tips would be appreciated!
Hello,
I bake on Wednesday, Shape/buttercream and cover in icing on Thursday and finish decorations on Friday. Deliver on Saturday and would expect the cake to still taste good after being cut on Saturday the following Wednesday/Thusday.
I did a test run on a 10″ recently and didn’t cover it at all- just cut slices as we wanted them and smeared jam on it. That cake sat on my worktop for 10 days. It was only loosly coved in tin foil and on the 10th day started to feel a bit stale. I would imagine in an air tight container it would stay fresh for longer but I would avoid baking too far in advance. A few days will be okay though.
I hope that helps. I’d love you to share your cake on the Cakes Bakes And Cookies Facebook page so we can see what it looks like. We love cake over there!
EmmaMT
Hi
I am making a cake shaped as a shirt and the tin holds 2000 ml of water, do I go with the 7″ ingredients or the 8″ ?
Thanks
Joanne
Hi! I have just found your blog and it is fantastic. Putting my mind at ease as I embark on the challenging journey of making my daughter’s first birthday cake! (yep, no pressure!)
I’m planning on making a strawberry flavoured birthday cake using a12 inch square tin. I’m very new to the world of cake baking especially one this size, so was wondering if you could give me any tips on how much strawberry puree to use and if I should reduce the measurements of any of the other ingredients to compensate?
Thanks Emma!
Liz
Hello,
I’ve never added strawberry puree to a Madeira cake (or any cake for that matter) before. Normally I would say swap out the weight of something else so the cake is balanced but with this one I’m not sure.
If I was to guess I would say omit the vanilla essence and add the puree but as to how much I have no idea. I think this might make for a flat cake.
If you give it a go please let me know how you get on. I’d be very interested to hear your results.
Good luck and sorry I couldn’t be of more help.
EmmaMT
Hi just tried making this, it was coming out of the cake tin in the oven not sure why? Help please.
Hello,
Usually this happens when the oven is too hot and the cake is baking too quickly
EmmaMT
Help I have made a maderia cake a recipe from a wedding cake book itcame out ok but I am giving your recipe a go the one I did came out 2 inch in depth I need to do one thats 4 inch and is it best to do three layers or two x 2inch thank you.
Hello,
It’s completely a matter of personal choice. I think the more tiers (and hence buttercream in between) makes for a more special and tasty cake but it doesn’t really make that much of a difference.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
If i was splitting the mixture into two tins would the baking time change? Also is it unsalted butter you use? Can you add lemon to a madeira receipe to make it like a lemon sponge cake?
Hello,
Yes you can split the recipe between two tins but bake on one shelf where possible for an even bake. The time will be much reduced for half the amount in two tins. I don’t have these timings so keep a close eye on them. Usually when your kitchen is filled with the smell of cake they’re nearly done.
EmmaMT
I’m in total panic mode here. Everything went well with recipe and in went the 10″ springfrom 3″ cake to the oven. But there is leakage from the springform clip part and I’m worried that there will be a hollow cake 🙁 That is one tin that won’t be getting washed – straight to the bin it goes. There is a stalactite of madeira mix rising up to meet my cake on the shelf above. It would almost be funny if this wasn’t for my daughter’s 18th birthday party tomorrow. I think I’ll be making LOTS of buttercream to disguise the flaws….
Hello,
Sorry I haven’t got back to you sooner. It sounds to me like perhaps that tin needed to go into the bin. Springform tins shouldn’t leek even with the wettest ingredients in. I hope the cake was a success. Buttercream is always a winner and no-one else gets to see what’s underneath! I bet it still tasted great!
EmmaMT
So, i’m sure that it’s not your recipe that doesn’t work because clearly it’s been working for you all these years lol. However, i just baked the 12″ one following to a tea and when there was 30mins left in the cooking time, the centre sank. I even had a heating core in there. Never opened the door. Just peaked through glass. Outside very crispy. Think crust and inside very greasy and crumbly. This was a very expensive flop 🙁 i think for the wedding cake i’ll be going back to a box cake and figure this out at another time. The batter also rose to a full 3″ high, that was the incredible part!!! I’ve never baked one so high.
Hello,
I’m not sure what happened here. Usually when cakes sink it’s because the door has been opened and the cold air bursts the air bubbles in the cake making it sink. Another reason could be the mixure was over mixed. I always have the opposite problem of the cake doming. It’s never sank in the middle. Are you baking in an electric oven. Some readers with electric ovens seem to have this problem.
EmmaMT
Hello, thank you for your lovely recepie. I tried the 12 inches the first time and it was excellent. The second time, it did not rise in the middle and was soggy. What do you think went wrong? Also, can I use other flavours like strawberry instead of vanilla.
Thank you
Hello,
Usually when a cake falls in the middle its either the oven door was opened at a crucial baking moment or the mixture was over mixed.
When you saw strawberry do you mean essence? I’ve not heard of that before but you can swap the vanilla essence for most other flavours. I usually use Almond extract which is amazing!
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Awesome! Well detailed. Thank you muchos
You are Muchos welcome.
EmmaMT
Hi I’m wondering of you could help me!! I need to bake a cake that’s 5inch in diameter x 4 inches deep. Can’t find a recipe anywhere
Hi Aimee
If you can measure the volume of your tin I can work it out for you. Have a look at this post to see how to do that.
EmmaMT
Hi Emma,
The volume of the cake tin is 1000ml.
Thanks so much x
Aimee.
Hi Emma! Just after a bit of advice really.
I’m currently in the middle of baking a 9″ round cake using your recipe and have just checked how it’s doing the glass oven door and the cake has risen in the centre to almost double its height! It’s not a huge problem as I can just trim the centre off and use the rest of the sponge as usual but does this ever happen to yourself also and do you have any tips to help stop? I’m quite new to baking round iced cakes as I’ve always stuck to giant cupcakes and normal cupcakes so I’m still learning really! Any tips would be a massive help 🙂 Thanks! X
Hello,
This happens to nearly everyone with Madeira cakes. I actually have a ton of questions like yours and then on the first episode of this years Great British Bake off good old Mary Berry said that a Madeira cake should dome and have a crack on the top!
If yours has risen too high it could be due to the oven being too hot or the ingredients being over mixed. To prevent it I use a piece of baking paper with a hole cut in the middle and place this over the cake tin for the first half of the bake. I then remove it so the cake can brown.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Just typed in recipe for a 6″ round cake and this came up – fab as I also needed a 9″ one too. One question if I may – one of my tiers needs to be a lemon madeira (the 6″ one) could you tell me how I would incorporate that into the 6″ recipe?
Many Thanks
Flix
Hello,
I think you may have made this cake already but if not… I would just omit the vanilla essence and use the juice and rind of ½ lemon instead. I would also make a vanilla sugar syrup and add zest and juice to the buttercream. This sounds delicious!
EmmaMT
Can u ask why the weight of the ingredients goes up by such a small amount when you get to the 12inch cake in comparison to how much it goes up with the smaller cakes?
Hello,
I’ve found that the bigger the cake tin – the bigger the surface area and the more ingredients you add the heavier the cake is. Less ingredients makes for a lighter cake.
All that said it’s a maths formula I use so it’s probably mathematically because you are adding a small amount extra with a larger tin? Possibly?
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma. I was wondering if you could help me please. I’m hoping to bake your maderia cake but am using a 12″ x 8″ x 2″ rectangular cake tin and was wondering measurements for this and cooking time and temperature?
Many thanks
Stacey
Hello,
If you measure the volume of water your tin can hold you can work out how much cake ingredients you need. Have a look at the posts below for guidance.
How to measure the volume of a cake tin.
Madeira cake ingredients for different size tins
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi, I wonder if you can help me, I am going to attempt making a dinosaur cake which uses a 12 x 10 oval tin, is it possible tthat you could help me with the required measures also which marg and butter should I use.
Hello,
If you measure the volume of water the cake tin will hold you can use the chart on this post to see how much cake ingredients you will need.
How to measure the volume of a cake tin post here
Madeira cake ingredients for different size tins.
I use Supermarket own brand butter – not the very cheap one – the next one up. Sainsury’s is my favorite for taste and texture. And I use Flora or Stork for the margarine. I only use President butter for the buttercream though as it’s super creamy and totally delicious.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
I love this recipe and I’ve used it loads and they turn out fab every time. I’d love to know how to scale it for square tins! Any advice?
Hello,,
If you measure the volume of water your tin can hold you can work out how much cake ingredients you need. Have a look at the posts below for guidance.
How to measure the volume of a cake tin.
Madeira cake ingredients for different size tins
A general rule of thumb is that you go up 1″ in round cake tins for a square one. So use a 9″ round recipe for an 8″ square tin.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
I just wanted to post to say thank you for this blog!!! My brother recently asked me to make his 4 tier wedding cake, 12″ 10″ 8″ 6″ with victoria sponge. I found out after perfecting my Victoria sponge that its not the best for stacked wedding cakes with all the fondant and decorations and was told I should do madiera instead. Never made madeira before.. All I knew about madeira was that it can be dry.. Panic!!! Found this blog and followed your recipe exactly and.. Perfect!!! Each tier was exactly 3 inches high, literally… exactly 3 inches! (Using a wet towel round the tin so they rose completely flat) They tasted great and dryness certainly wasn’t a concern!
I had no idea what kind of quantaties I would need to make such big cakes or even how for that matter, I had never a tempted anything like this before. Can’t imagine how it would have turned out I’f I hadn’t found this. Thank you!!!
Hi! Lovely recipe! Love it. The baking time is confusing though here and the chocolate version as well. The chart says bake for 85-90 minutes but when i download it it says 45-50 minutes. Now that’s some difference. Which one is correct
Sorry about that. I must change it.
I re-tested all the timings and it’s the longer times which are correct.
Happy baking
EmmaMT
Hi,im looking to bake a chocolate sponge or Madeira for my sons christening in two wks.i would like to do a square cake big enough for 30 people.could u please tell me best ingredients, tin size and gas temp as my oven is gas.and time needed to cook,thank you,lorna
Hello,
Lucky you to have a gas oven. I think gas ovens bake the best cakes. That’s what I’m going to have in my next dream kitchen!
A 10″ cake will serve 30 guests.
Happy baking
EmmaMT
Thanks emma,i love cooking with gas but cud u tell me the correct gas temp please and do I use ur guide for a 10″ square chocolate Madeira?my oven isn’t very big so does it go on the middle shelf!iv never baked one this big and I’m abit nervous, I’m using ur reciepe Thank you again
Hello Emma, I found your blog 2 weeks ago, after being asked to make a 2 tier birthday cake. I have not previously made a Maderia cake, but i used your chart to make a 6 and 8 inch cake that are both 3 inches high. I have to say, you explained the ingredients perfectly, the method was very well written, and i have 2 perfect cakes now. They have now both been trimmed to level the tops (or rather the bottoms) and are now ready for icing tomorrow. I have tasted the off-cuts and the cakes are beautiful light fluffy – if a tad sweet for me, but the cake is not for me) Thank you for providing such clear instruction and photographs at each stage. I wish i could send a picture of what will be my finished cakes.
Hello,
Thanks for your lovely comment. If you’d like to share photos of your cake you can always post it on the CakesBakesAndCookies Facebook page. I’d love to see it. Here’s the link below
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cakes-Bakes-and-Cookies/260731630659816
EmmaMT
x
Baked this as a trial Emma for my little girls birthday and it was delicious ! I’d like it a little more moist though so I’m wondering if I baked it too long – my skewer was clean at 55 mins but I covered it and baked it for the additional 10 mins as I wanted to follow timings!! Nice golden colour and flat on top so I’m guessing temp was fine? Just wondering if the golden rule is always to remove cake from oven as soon as skewers clean?? Thx so much!
Hello,
Yes you’re right. Always use the clean skewer as a guide. Every oven has it’s own mind. Mine is never at the temperature I set it to! I use an oven thermometer and check with a skewer. I also press lightly with my finger and if the cake bounces back right away it’s done. Or if the cake is coming away from the sides of the tin it’s done.
Hope that helps for next time
EmmaMT
Hi just to clarify to bake a 12″square would you use your round 10″ or 12″?
Hello,
I accidentally used the 10″ round recipe in a 10″ square cake and it came out 2½” deep. Definitely use a 12″ round recipe for a 10″ square.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, Glad i found your site as everyone sounds pleased with their results from your guide. I’m hoping to make a madeira bauble cake for Christmas.I’d love to practise now. I have x2 half ball pans with stands especially for this cake, each ball pan is 750ml (i measured with a pyrex jug as they are cleary marked). In total 1500ml. What ingredients would i need please, I’ve looked on the guide and my 1500ml measurements are between sizes (just my luck lol). Pretty please can you help me Emma. Thanks ever so much. Barb xx
Could you split this between 2 tins and half he time of cooking?
Hello,
Yes you can split the cake mixture between two tins but they will rise more than when it’s just one cake. In my experience you get an even lighter cake that way. The baking time probably won’t be less. Have a look at the chart and see how long a cake with less weight bakes for and use that as a guide and keep a beady eye on it.
Happy baking
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, is this cake sturdy enough to carve?
I don’t like margarine so is it ok too use 500 grams of butter instead or would that ruin the cake ??
Hello,
You can use all butter with this cake but it does alter the texture and taste a little. All butter makes a heavier cake and I don’t think it really improves the taste at all. I haven’t tried it with all margarine but I don’t think it would taste as good as butter has a nicer flavour. Margarine melts quicker than butter so if I was making an asumption I would guess that an all marg cake would be really light but would dome massively.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma. I always make your madera cake and it goes down a treat with everyone. Do you have a recipe for a lemon madera cake? Thanks in advance if you do.
Kerry x
Hi Kerry,
I posted this Lemon and Lime Madeira cake a few weeks ago. You can adapt it by adding the same amount of lemon and lime juice and zest but just use the lemons. I’ve made this before and it’s deelish!
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
I’d like to say thanks for this recipe. I am an average baker and was a bit nervous as I had volunteered to make both my sister and my husband (who share their birthday) novelty cakes. My sister’s was an American football top & my husband’s a blood bowl pitch (looks like an American football pitch) with skulls and dice. I didn’t have a good Madeira recipe but after finding yours (with conversions) thought I’d take a chance. My tins were rectangular but thanks to your volumes I was still able to use the right measurements. I didn’t need as long as it was a shallower tin but thankfully I thought that would be the case. I have to say both cakes turned out brilliantly (I even made one sponge blue!) and everyone thought they were delicious! I’ll be keeping your recipe for future cakes!
Ahhh thanks so much for taking the time to share that with me. I really appreciate your comment. So glad I could help.
Love the sound of blue cake! Brilliant idea!
Happy baking
EmmaMT
Hello. I am a beginner baker/decorator and I am use to making sheet cakes, the rectangular pan I will be using is a 9 x 13, I think. I was just wondering if I could make like 3-4 batches of this recipe and add it to the pan until I get to the appropriate fill level instead of trying to convert the measurements. Will this work? Because trying to figure these conversions is really troubling me. I’m attempting to make a cake that has a leopard print on the inside of the cake and the recipe calls for a heavy batter and recommends using a Madeira batter. I like your recipe but I want to make sure it will work right in my sheet pan since your recipe caters to round pans.
Hello,
You don’t have to work anything out other than measuring the volume of water your cake tray will hold. Once you know that you can use the chart to see which cake size is closest. All the cakes have the volume in ml of water that size tin holds.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, I’m about to make my sons 1st birthday cake and I’m using two 8cm X 25cm bar cake pans. Could you advise me on measurements for each tin please?. Thanks Rachel
Hi Rachel,
If you measure the size of your cake tin you can see which cake size from this chart works best
How to measure the volume of a cake tin
I love to see all your fantastic creations so please feel free to share your cakes over on the Cakes Bakes And Cookies Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cakes-Bakes-and-Cookies/260731630659816
EmmaMT
Hi if I have a mould 12×8″ what amount of ingredients will I need
Hi Emma,
I searched and read many cake recipes but none of them as details and perfect as ur recipe. I’m hoping u might be able to help me for my son’s first birthday cake (next two weeks).
I want to bake Madeira cake by using Wilton Stand-Up Cake Pan-Cuddly Bear 9.5″x8.625″. Will u please share the measurements and baking time with me.
Many many thanks… Celin
Hi Emma,
Sorry I just read how to measure the volume of cake tin. Now I understand. One question please, do I need to wrap the tin from the beginning of baking?
Thanks…Celin
Hello,
Thanks for your questions. Yes you would normally wrap the cake tin at the start of the bake but that may be a bit difficult with a shaped tin. You also may not need it if the deepest part isn’t all that deep.
Hope that helps. Let me know how you get on
EmmaMT
Hi Emma,
Thank you so much for a great recipe. My bear cake was successfully baked and the taste was awesome. It was baked only 75 minutes. I modified little bit by using 10g of corn starch so the texture was more fluffy.
I used butter & little bit flour inside the pan (to prevent sticky) and wrapped with parchment papers and the outside was beautifully golden brown. We had a great party with a beautiful polar bear cake 🙂
Thanks & GBU
Celin
Ahhh I’m so pleased. Well done you. x
Hi, thank you so much for such am informative blog but I have a question regarding this cake stuff and would be waiting for you reply. What would be the height of this cake which is made with the recipe of 10″ cake ?? As 10″ is the diameter but I am asking for the height that how much it would rise? I have a tin which is 3″ in depth and 10″ in diameter. And I am planning to make a birthday cake for my daughter
Hello,
Thanks for your lovely words.
The recipe on this post gives a cake which is 3″ deep so you can slice it in half and fill it with buttercream if you wish.
Hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, thanks so much for this recipe it really is brilliant!! I was just wondering if you could tell me how long it keeps for? Just working out maximum decoration times!! Many thanks, Nicky
Hi Nicky, Thanks for your comment. I know what you mean. We all like to have that max amount of time to decorate slowly. Great news that this cake lasts ages before and after decorating! Have a look at this post for a lot more info on this topic
How long to keep a Madeira cake for
Happy baking
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, thank you very much for all the help you have been given. Maybe I missed it, but which shelf do you bake a 12 inch cake? Would it bake better at shelf 2 from the bottom. Thank you very much. I am making 6, 8, 9 and 12 inch cakes, can i bake them all at shelf 2.
Hello, I bake in the middle of my oven. I try to bake on one shelf as you get a more even bake that way.
I hope that helps
EmmaMT
Hi Emma, your Madeira cake recipe is a life saver! Made more times than I can count. I wanted to know whether adding white chocolate chips to this would work and how much you would recommend for a 12 inch cake. Thanks in advance.
I am absolutely loving you this very minute!!
I have been doing large cakes for a while and never 100% happy with everything every time.
I came across your page and decided to give it a go. I have just cooked 1×10″ and 5×8″ in 2 days and every single one has been perfect!!!
I will never use another recipe again!!
Thank you loads.
Iain SB?
Ahhh thanks Iain, that’s made my day!
Happy baking
EmmaMT
x
Hi I have an 11″ round tin and I don’t have a big enough mixer for that many eggs so i normally bake each layer separate using a basic 6 egg sponge mix so if I follow the recipe for the 8″ round mix which uses 6 eggs will this be ok ??
Also could I use self raising flour and not put in the baking powder ? I only have self raising at home
Thanks
Hello,
It’s really hard to say without knowing the recipe. If I was to do that with my recipe I would probably go for the 7″ (to bake in two goes) The reason being is that the 8″ will be a bit too much and the 7″ is a bit too less but the less option will give you a greater rise and lighter cake which is always more delicious. If the cake is slightly shallower than I hoped for I would add more buttercream between the two.
So you can understand how I calculate this (without having an 11″ tin!) I assume the volume of water an 11″ tin can hold is around 4300ml. When I look in my chart the 8″ is for 2200ml and the 7″ is for 1800ml. I hope that helps and doesn’t confuse matters!
Happy baking
EmmaMT
Please can you give the quantities for a 12 inch square madeira cake. I’m making one for a friend’s wedding. Thank you so very much.
Hi Kath,
Thanks for your question. Hello,
If you measure the volume of water your tin can hold you can work out how much cake ingredients you need. Have a look at the posts below for guidance.
How to measure the volume of a cake tin
https://cakesbakesandcookies.com/2015/05/28/faq-how-to-measure-the-volume-of-a-cake-tin/
6 to 12″ Madeira cake chart
https://cakesbakesandcookies.com/2013/08/15/6-to-12-in-60-seconds-aka-madeira-cake-ingredients-for-different-size-cake-tins/
Hope that helps
If you’re still having problems let me know the measurements and I’ll work it out for you.
Happy baking
EmmaMT
So glad I’ve found your recipes. Have you ever coloured your Madeira batter with gel colours? Do they turn out ok? My son wants a red, white and blue cake so hoping to try your recipe bug with the added colours.
Hello,
Funny you should ask. I made a green Madeira cake just this weekend. The problem was that she wanted blue. I did everything I could think of to make the cake mix as white as possible – used President butter as it’s nearly white, replaced the marg with oil, removed the egg yolks and replaced with cream, just so I could add the blue colouring and it still turned out green – she liked it but it was a struggle. The problem is that cake batter is always yellow and as blue is a prime colour you can’t make it from a yellow starting point.
But other than blue I have coloured the Madeira cake mix loads of times. I even did it for my 40th birthday cake and also for a friends . The colour intensifies as it bakes to colour the mix lighter than you want the end result to be.
I hope that is helpful.
EmmaMT
I wonder if you can help me. When I first looked at this page about three months ago the chart for ingredient quantities for different size Madeira cakes was visible. Now, despite searching various links I cannot find it anywhere. Please, has it been moved or taken down? I would be grateful if you could direct me on how to find it. Many thanks.
Hello Sara,
Yes you are right there was a chart but my blog was deleted by by web hosting company and now the images are all deleted from the site when it was backed up! SOOOOOO frustrating! Anyway, you can find the chart over on the CakesBakesAndCookies Facebook pages
Hope that helps.
EmmaMT
Hi, I always use your Madeira cake recipe and it woks perfectly every time, I love it!. However I have been unable to download you 6-12” chart for cake ingredience for over a week and I was wondering if there was a way I could get it please? I am making an Optimus Prime birthday cake for my little boy and I need to make 12”, 9” and 7” square cakes. Please can you help? Many thanks.
Hello,
Yes you are right there was a chart but my blog was deleted by by web hosting company and now the images are all deleted from the site when it was backed up! SOOOOOO frustrating! Anyway, you can find the chart over on the CakesBakesAndCookies Facebook pages https://www.facebook.com/cakesbakesandcookies/photos/a.350005081732470.78625.260731630659816/1477466382319662/?type=3&theater
Hope that helps.
EmmaMT
Thank you so much. I have saved the chart now in my baking bible. ???? One other small question if I may. I am wanting to colour the cakes (red and another blue) but I was wondering at which stage should I add the food colouring?
Hi I am making a 9 inch Madeira half a football cake what recipe should I follow for that a 10 inch ?
Thank you
Hi, I cannot see the chart with the ingredients on?
Hello,
I’ve just put a new post out with links as to where you can find the chart. Have a look here
Happy baking
EmmaMT x