Tips for Making a Successful Shaped Birthday Cake

[LynBin]

I just had a trial run of my son's birthday cake. I am absolutely fine with cakes that are round or square, but not shaped ones it seems!

I have a mould that is in the shape of a spaceship. The mould has some shallow ends. I used a Madeira sponge for a 23cm round dish. I just did trial run. I went the whole time the recipe suggests but the cake was gooey in the middle and slightly crispy on the shallow bits. I put it back in for 5 more mins and it still seemed gooey. Cake also rose quite a lot in the middle suggesting I had too much mixture (although when I put in the batter it was only about 1/3 full). The risen bit of the cake also split right down the middle. In the end I took a bread knife and levelled off the cake and put it back in the oven to cook the middle. Eventually I cooled it down and flipped it over. It looks magnificent and came out easy. It has great definition from the mould. However, I haven't made the sponge successfully and it is important for it to taste good too.

Is a Madeira sponge the only way to go with a mould cake? I did bake a pound cake last week but thought it was really heavy. I really need some help in getting this right. I am happy to have a few more go's but would welcome some much needed advice.

Thanks in advance.

 

[connie]

Can I suggest a slightly different recipe. The difference is in the quantity of flour used.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1997/classic-victoria-sandwich

Also try to use the back of a sponge to hollow out the deeper sections so that you have roughly the same depth of batter throughout. The 'batter' is much more 'solid' in this recipe so you can control its location much more easily I think. It can be flavoured with vanilla essence if you wish - vanilla bean is better though, and sometimes I melt chocolate into the batter at the last minute as well. Be careful not to overcook it otherwise it will be very dry.