Dolly vs. Silicone... Garden Party Cake!

Years ago when I was in my 'muffin' phase, I bought a pink silicone muffin pan. They were everywhere, and I felt like I was missing out. However... I was horrified to find that whilst the outside of the cake was cooked, the inside was a gooey mess. Raw. In a fit of rage I binned the wretched thing and vowed to avoid silicone at all costs.

Now then. You might have noticed that recently I am very much in my 'bundt' phase. Proper bundt tins are expensive because they are very heavy gauge, and are often intricate in design. A couple of weeks ago a colleague mentioned she had seen carbon copies of these in Aldi, but they were made of silicone. After I had recovered from the baking disaster of 2009 flashbacks, and rubbished the moulds as imitations... I couldn't help but be curious. Could something that cost £3.49 really be as good as a tin that costs £30? I had to find out.

Curiosity may have killed the cat, (although I am glad to say no cats were harmed in the making of this cake) but I was confident I would live to tell the tale. This is the tale. If you logged onto Twitter this afternoon, you will have seen me ranting about said bakeware. And plotting the bonfire I was planning to burn it on.

I'm not in the business of bad reviews. Don't get me wrong, I don't think everything is perfect but I do believe in the mantra 'if you've got nothing nice to say, say nothing at all'. Silence speaks volumes. I can however be constructive in order to allow others to avoid disappointment (and fury).

What I will say is that silicone will never (ever) replace my bundt tins. This cake was seriously flawed by the fact the bakeware did not conduct the heat sufficiently to create even baking. The edges and top baked quickly, leaving a liquid centre. I actually had to bake it for two hours. I know he recipe is robust, as I have used it before. Even after I removed it from the mould, it had to go back in to brown the top, as the centre was actually white. The texture of the inside was fine, but the outside was quite firm. The cake tasted great, but I'm not attributing that to the tin in any way!

If you make this recipe, I recommend that you do not use silicone bakeware. Any heavy gauge tin will do. I would use a 10 inch ring or bundt pan. 

Garden Party Cake

Ingredients

• 225g of unsalted butter
• 100g of vegetable fat (I used Stork)
• 650g golden caster sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 450g plain flour
• A good pinch of salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 250ml cloudy lemonade

Method

1. Preheat the oven to gas 3/160 c.
2. Grease and flour your desired tin.
3. Cream the butter, vegetable fat and caster sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating on a slow speed until well incorporated.
5. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.
6. Mix the lemonade and the extracts in a jug.
7. Sift in 1/3 of the flour then add 1/3 of the liquid. 
8. Repeat this until everything is combined. Again, don't overmix, just combine the ingredients.
9. Pour the mixture into the tin. It will fill to the brim, but don't worry, it doesn't rise much because no raising agent was added. Just air!
10. Bake in the middle of the oven for an hour and 30 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.
11. Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out onto a plate.
12. Either dredge with icing sugar (and in my case, glitter) or decorate using coloured icing. 

This cake is perfect with a glass of cold cloudy lemonade whilst sat in the garden listening to birds and being mithered by the cat...

Bloggers: Please respect the fact I am sharing my own ideas and recipe. Blood, sweat and many tears have gone into getting this right, so you may enjoy a perfect bundt. If you wish to re-blog a recipe from these variations, please credit my blog and link to this original post rather than pasting the recipe on your own page. 

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