6 cakes in 6 days; all fell flat?

[Garey]

I don't think I have ever cooked a cake, but I wanted to duplicate my grandmothers pound cake recipe, I found a cuz, who gave me the recipe, 2cup sugar, 1cup crisco, 6 eggs, 1tsp of vanilla and lemon extract and 2 cups of self rising flour.
The first, I crushed the crisco into the sugar, until will mixed, added the vanilla and lemon and 6 large eggs mixed with a spoon, added flour, mixed till arm was tired about 30 seconds to one min. placed in greased flowered pan, at 350. for one hour, cake fell flat, tasted good but fell.

2on cake, found my electric mixer yea repeated cake fell flat.

3rd, checked oven temp adjusted oven knob now temp is correct at 350 cake fell flat. also cake too done on outside.

4th raised oven rack cake near top of oven, correct 350 temp, cake fell flat.
5th purchased fresh flour fresh eggs, cake fell flat.
6th tried 5 eggs not 6 cake fell flat.
How did grandma do it, this is as hard as chinese writhmitick as you can see I do not give up easy, but it is time to back up and punt, my back is at the goal line. help.

 

[Alix]

Pound cakes are by their very nature heavy. If you want to "lighten" the cake you can do a couple of things.

1. Sift your flour into your creamed shortening and sugar and stir very gently just enough to incorporate the flour.

2. Add more leavening. Add about 1 tsp of baking powder. (Baking powder is already in your self rising flour)

Remember to stir GENTLY with sifted flour. You don't want to lose all that air.

 

[SNPiccolo5]

Hi Garey,

I've made pound cakes with butter, not shortening. That said, I may be able to help you.

First, are you looking for a cake with a rounded top? Often, mine will puff nicely in the oven, then deflate a little--they still look good, though.

The important thing with poundcake is to have at least as much solids as liquids. Your liquids are crisco and sugar--3 cups. Your solids are flour and eggs--2 cups plus whatever 6 eggs is. 6 eggs is probably 1 cup, so you're probably good in that department. How are you measuring your flour? Usually, errors result in too much flour, not too little. But maybe consider adding 2 Tb. It could really help.

The other important thing is the mixing method. I've found two that work.

1. Cream the crisco until fluffy. For 3 full minutes. Then, slowly add the sugar and cream at the same time. Adding the sugar should take ~ 4-5 minutes. The sugar should dissolve into the butter/crisco, and the mixture should become light and fluffy, not grainy. With the hand mixer, maybe add 2 Tb sugar and mix for 30 seconds, then add 2 Tb more, mix for 30-40 seconds, etc... You can't mix too much. Then, beat the eggs (and vanilla, if using) until very liquidy. As with the sugar, add the eggs slowly--in a thin stream over several minutes. All of this takes time but incorporates so much air into the batter. In the end, fold in the flour. Try not to deflate as much. I would try some leavening in the flour, too.

2. Beat the eggs and sugar together until foamy and doubled in volume. Melt the crisco/butter. In a thin stream, pour butter/crisco into the egg foam. Once it is incorporated, fold in the flour, trying not to deflate.

Hope that helps.

Tim

 

[licia]

I think I would compare the recipe with another pound cake to see what the difference may be. You may be able to tell something by doing that.

 

[Garey]

7cakes in 7days 7 rise then fall flat flat flat

Ok I tried creaming the crisco, adding sugar slowly, then beating eggs extract then adding to crisco and sugar slowly. then added flour I also added about a tea spoon of baking soda, and I sifted the flour and using a 1cup measuring cup with straight edge swiping the top. did it two times for two cups,
Cake rose high, then fell straight to hell, 7th cake also a disaster, I never opened the oven untill time was up.
All the cakes have risen high on the cake pan, you can see after it is cooked, then you can see where the sides of the cake fell into the top of the cake.
Seven strike outs, if it falls a tenth time I'll never bake another cake, back to the BBQ grill for me. I am fixing a T-Bone potatoes, and corn.

I have three more tries

 

[Garey]

Hi Garey,

I've made pound cakes with butter, not shortening. That said, I may be able to help you.

First, are you looking for a cake with a rounded top? Often, mine will puff nicely in the oven, then deflate a little--they still look good, though.

The important thing with poundcake is to have at least as much solids as liquids. Your liquids are crisco and sugar--3 cups. Your solids are flour and eggs--2 cups plus whatever 6 eggs is. 6 eggs is probably 1 cup, so you're probably good in that department. How are you measuring your flour? Usually, errors result in too much flour, not too little. But maybe consider adding 2 Tb. It could really help.

The other important thing is the mixing method. I've found two that work.

1. Cream the crisco until fluffy. For 3 full minutes. Then, slowly add the sugar and cream at the same time. Adding the sugar should take ~ 4-5 minutes. The sugar should dissolve into the butter/crisco, and the mixture should become light and fluffy, not grainy. With the hand mixer, maybe add 2 Tb sugar and mix for 30 seconds, then add 2 Tb more, mix for 30-40 seconds, etc... You can't mix too much. Then, beat the eggs (and vanilla, if using) until very liquidy. As with the sugar, add the eggs slowly--in a thin stream over several minutes. All of this takes time but incorporates so much air into the batter. In the end, fold in the flour. Try not to deflate as much. I would try some leavening in the flour, too.

2. Beat the eggs and sugar together until foamy and doubled in volume. Melt the crisco/butter. In a thin stream, pour butter/crisco into the egg foam. Once it is incorporated, fold in the flour, trying not to deflate.

Hope that helps.

Tim

My grandmother used an electric mixer to mix the flour, this was in about 1975 I know she made one a week for months on end, all her 10 kids all grown at the time and me one of the many many grandkids were always fed at grannies house, cake and ice cream, or a coke float, or home cooked meals on the stove, garden grown food, but the point is I never knew a single cake of hers to fall. I lived with her for about two years. I remember licking the bowl and the mixing paddles. as the cake went into the oven.
What am I doing wrong, On cake number one I used cake flour I like the texture better but it fell also, I forgot baking soda or flour. tried cake two with cake flour and baking soda and baking powder, cake rose high, fell flat.

 

[Janet H]

I found some info about the original crisco pound cake and I think your proportions may be waaay off. Try these:

http://www.crisco.com/Recipes/Details.aspx?recipeID=686

Original Crisco Pound Cake - Message Board - Forums

 

[Garey]

I hope # 8 will be a winner I will try again soon

Thanks Janet for the Crisco page with a pound cake recipe, If my cousin gave me the wrong recipe that caused me all this wasted effort and time, I might give her an ear full. again I may not. she did not mean to.
My grandmother was cooking this cake in 1960 and 1970's and I am sure they have updated the recipe, the spray on flour was introduced in 2005, and they did not use cake flour in the original , but I am eager to try this recipe in the next few days. A great grandaughter cooked this cake in a county, fair cake baking contest and won first place, it was written up in the local upson news paper, I saw the article.
Some one else in the family has the older recipe that has the correct measurements, I will try to find it later, but I may start a newer updated version of grannies pound cake. I do know I like the taste of flat cakes I have been cooking better with cake flour, Only one or two of the cakes were fit to eat, most were thrown away.
I am thinking optimistic about cake number 8

 

[SNPiccolo5]

Hi Garey,

Sorry the creaming method didn't improve your results .

If the new recipe doesn't work or you don't like it, maybe folding in the flour is a mistake? If she added the flour with the mixer going, it would encourage a stronger gluten structure, which would promote a more stable rise. The reason most pound cake recipes call for folding is because mixing it in can deflate the butter. If you thought the leavening was fine (taste-wise), though, deflating the butter wouldn't matter that much. Especially if it's just collapsing in the end.

Also, I've noticed that batter that sits for a little rises more. When I bake more than 12 cupcakes, some of the batter has to sit because I only have 1 cupcake pan. The second batch of cupcakes always seems to rise higher. I'm guessing it's because the batter has rested for 20-30 minutes.

Finally--and this is just to make 100% sure--how are you checking the cake for doneness? Underbaked good, even though they are puffed up, will fall.

Anyway, hopefully the new recipe works/helps us figure out it out.

Is there anyway you could post pictures of your cake?

Tim

 

[Kayelle]

Hi Garey.......
This is one of the many reasons I don't bake, so I'm sorry to say I can't help you. I assume your grandmother is gone now, but I bet she is smiling at how much this cake of hers means to you. You are one determined grandson.....I would have given up after about the second try.
Kudo's to you, and good luck!

 

[Garey]

Ok I took a few pic of the pound cake for Tim or piccolo5 to check out, I do not know how to navigate around this site. but that is fine, I posted 4 pictures. Today it is cool near Atlanta GA. It is Mothers day, My mom and grandmother are gone, I am 57 and will be 58 in Dec 7, 2010 nope I am 58 hahahah Happy Mothersday to all you Mothers out there. I am trying a new Crisco pound cake recipe later today.

 

[Janet H]

WOW - those are some flat cakes. Discuss Cooking - Cooking Forums - Garey's Album: flat pound cake anyone!

They seem to be fully cooked though. I'll be interested to hear how the next on turns out.

 

[Garey]

Cake 8 not flat but a flop

ok I was happy to see cake 8 not flat. when I cut into the cake it did not act like pound cake, too spongy. cake was really moist, even the crust was moist, strange, This cake had a good flavor, it was easy to fall apart, and very moist, The cake did not cut like pound cake, texture was not like pound cake, this is not pound cake. Unless when some one else make this cake it turns into pound cake. Cake is an improvement I am encouraged a little, but. this cake is not pound cake.

 

[chilichip]

Have you try Cook's Country or America's test kitchen cold-oven pound cake? It's a 100-year-old recipe and that been updated and I made it this morning ,waiting for it to cool Looks good and smells great

 

[SNPiccolo5]

Hi Garey,

First--from looking at your pictures, it really looks like it was a recipe issue. You can even see the beautiful bubbles from the creaming, and it is definitely cooked all the way through. Those cakes, from my guess, just don't have enough flour. They didn't just fall flat. They collapsed.

Next--great to hear the new cake didn't fall! Was that the recipe with the milk? I'm guessing that's what made it "not like pound cake." The milk is added moisture. Usually, pound cake is dense and rich because so much of the moisture comes from fat, fat like butter or crisco, which acts as a liquid when baking but becomes solid at room temperature.

When I change the amount of liquid in the recipe, I usually compensate by changing the amount of flour. If I use the recipe posted on the Crisco recipe and eliminate the milk, I'd decrease the flour a bit. However, decreasing the flour actually makes it really close to your old recipe, which we know doesn't work.

I would try making the Crisco website recipe (if that's what you used), just without the milk. Eliminating the milk will not make it fall, it will promote a good crust, and at the worst, it will make it slightly dry.

Hope this helps,
Tim

 

[CookLikeJulia]

Wow I am pretty impressed with your determination to bake your grandmother's pound cake!! I wish I was a good baker to help you like Kayelle, but I'm just a newbie and a wannabe cook haha. I bet you'll be able to do it on your 8th try. You can do it, you've almost done it. Keep going!! Let us know what happens.

 

[Garey]

where am I? lost again:

Ok Tim I used the new crisco recipe with milk, It's not the crusty dense moist pound cake, I am accustom to, and again I do not know where I am posting, who I am answering, or where to post pictures, this web site is not user friendly. It is like some of the computer flyer games I tried once, they make the controlls so accurate you have to become a pilot before you can get off the ground. Navigation around a website shouldn't be so difficult. I will try the recipe again with out the milk. I have more pictures but don't know where to post them, maybe with the cats, do they like pound cake.
I really appreciate all the help, I am a little exasperated with the cake, and not knowing how to navigate this web site, does not help at all.
I don't have hours to figure out the controlls, I just want to fly. Call me don't know where to post, don't know where to download pics, battle on two fronts army is getting weary. defense on the field way too long
But thanks to everyone trying to help this old man to cook a cake. Crisco needs to rethink their new recipe, are they kidding, I'll post cake 8 but I do not know where, I know how, just not where.

 

[DaveSoMD]

Garey,
When you log in to DC, click on "User CP" in the light blue menu bar, that will take you to a list of all discussions you are subscribed to (posting to).

Then, find this discussion in the list and click on the title to read all the postst from the start or click on the highest number or "last page", that wiill take you to the last page of posts.

To post photos, at the bottom of the discussion page is the qucik reply box. Click on the "Go Advanced" button.

Type in your post then scrolll down and click on the "Manage Attachements" button. Use the "Browse" button in the window to locate and select the photos. Click "Upload" button once you have them all selected, then scroll to the bottom of the window and click "Close this Window".

Then back on the main page, click "Submit Reply".

Hope this helps with one of your battles.

 

[Garey]

Ah CP I should have known, everybody else does

Thanks Dave
that is a help, a big help, I don't have time to post pic this morning, got some stuff to do, gotta work sometime. I posted a pic of cake 8 with cake 7 somewhere but can't find pic of the album of flat cake 7. Everybody should automatically know what user cp is I saw it but it didn't ring any bells with me. and I still don't know what user cp stands for. cp is that something that the general public is suppose to know, or is it for young people, or is it for cooks do cooks know what a cp is. ok ok gotta to go. still eating on cake 8, its good just not pound cake as I know it, texture is too course.

 

[licia]

My grandmother made a pound cake and instead of flour dusted in the pan before filling, she used sugar. That gave a very crusty exterior to the cake. I think her pound cake was lemon flavored.