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I tried baking a cake for the first time. The brief procedure I followed was:

  • Mashed 4 eggs. Added to it 1 cup sugar, 200g butter. Mixed it using an electric mixer.
  • Then added to it 1.5 cup of all purpose flour. Mixed it thoroughly again using electric mixer.
  • Baked it at 180 degree celsius for half an hour.

But the end product was not light and fluffy at all.

It looked something like this:

I cut open the entire cake

My question is:

What actually went wrong with this cake? What can I do so that I do not end up making a cake like this in future?

I want to make a normal cake which is significantly light and fluffy.

Thanks.

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    The usual procedure is to mix the butter and sugar, then add the eggs one at a time, beating in between, then add the flour and just barely mix it. You appear to have thrown everything together and mixed it for all it's worth. I also note you have no raising agent listed, like baking powder. Do you have a recipe link?
    – ElendilTheTall
    Commented Jun 22, 2015 at 15:54
  • @ElendilTheTall, I also added 2 pinches of baking soda but my thought was that eggs will act as raising agents. Is it true? Actually some friend of mine told me this recipe.
    – Akshay Arora
    Commented Jun 22, 2015 at 15:59
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    You say that you "mashed" the eggs. Were they cooked eggs? Or did you beat raw eggs?
    – Cindy
    Commented Jun 22, 2015 at 16:14
  • @Cindy, I beat raw eggs.
    – Akshay Arora
    Commented Jun 22, 2015 at 16:53
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    Um... you have no liquid in your cake recipe... your recipe looks like a sugar cookie recipe. Cakes usually have milk or buttermilk or some sort of liquid in them.
    – Catija
    Commented Jun 22, 2015 at 21:28

3 Answers 3

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You didn't have any leavening agent, simple as that. Add about 5-7 g baking powder to this amount of flour and you'll get a normal cake.

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1

It does look like you might be using a pound cake recipe. Pound cake will not be light and fluffy. Baking soda will not act as a leaving agent in your recipe (not acidic enough) baking powder would help some. If you are looking for a lighter cake, I would suggest a basic yellow cake like this. http://www.food.com/recipe/southern-living-basic-yellow-cake-recipe-or-chocolate-410027.

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    Your baking time is also way short for a pound cake, it probably should have been a hour or more. @Catija Thats what I was thinking at first, but there are pound cake recipes that call for little or no liquid.
    – Debbie M.
    Commented Jun 22, 2015 at 23:23
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I had a similar issue but not as extreme, the solution is to make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature especially if using heavy cream, butter or both. My pound cake recipe called for heavycream and butter but it looks like yours is just butter?

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