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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here.

Well - lessons learned. I'll repeat this cake next week to try and do a better job.

First issue: when I added the eggs to the creamed butter/sugar, it curdled. Pretty sure the eggs and the butter had not come to room temp, even thought they had been out for an hour. Then the batter was thicker than I thought it should be and the very thin layer of batter  didn't spread out evenly towards the edges of the pan -- and I felt impatient, so didn't address that. So I got an uneven bake that was more done at the edges than in the center. It was also overbaked in general. I tried it at 18 mins and it didn't spring back, then at 20 it did and I took it out? I don't know -- overall it was a bit tough, almost like a really light corned bread? Also, it didn't rise anywhere near as much as the ones I've seen on the internet.

I used raspberry jam and no cream. I saw a video of Paul Hollywood making it, and he left out the cream so I did too. This was, admittedly, 90% laziness and frustration, and 10% influence of the Paul Hollywood video.

I'll try again next week, and then move on to week two of my challenge after that. Next time: make sure butter is soft enough and eggs are truly room temp, be much better with distributing the batter in the pan to get a more even bake, get an offset spatula -- I think I do need one, double check the temp in my oven (I'm in a new house and it might be running hot, I'm not sure). I think I'm also going to order a piping bag (is that what they are called?) and pipe in cream next time (and figure out how to stabilize it with gelatin or pudding).

See you next week for an update. It was still better than most store bought stuff, surprisingly.

Oh and I do have a pic, just don't know how to put it on here. Will try to figure that out. [/quote]

Sounds like a good start! Leave the butter and eggs out overnight. Make sure you cream the butter and sugar long enough. Like 5-10 minutes. After that only stir in other ingredients enough to incorporate. If you over mix it will definitely get tough or curdle. If it’s too thick just add another egg or a tb of milk. Also if you used baking soda or powder make sure it’s fresh, that can cause the thin cake you talked about. You can line pans with parchment or double pan them to prevent over browning the bottom. If using dark pans reduce oven temp by 25 degrees, If you fill the pans then bang them on the counter a few times then let them sit for about 15 minutes before putting them in the oven they’ll be more even. For the cream you can stabilize it with powdered sugar or cream of tartar or unflavored gelatin or a bit of vanilla pie filling jello mix or even some marshmallow fluff. Marshmallow fluff works surprisingly well and holds up for a couple days. I’m sure it still tastes great![/quote]

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