Plain Sponge Recipe for XXXXL Cupcake Mould

By popular request.... An XXXXL Giant Jumbo Cupcake - this one. Many of you have seen and tried the recipe I last used in this which is HERE. However, I've also had loads of requests for a plain sponge recipe without the use of the apples.

Well - to be honest, I've not had occassion since to make such an enormously huge cake since. After all - even I couldn't dream of attempting to tackle eating a 4.25kg / 9lb cake without a lot of help ! PLEASE PLEASE try and ignore my icing. I went a bit nuts with yellow gel paste colouring and it WAS only slapped on with a few M & M's as sprinkles on Monday morning before work. It isn't here to look pretty.... it's here for functionality reasons only I'm afraid....

Photograph below shows our XXXXL Giant Jumbo Cupcake sat next to a Big Top Jumbo Cupcake. This shows how shockingly large such a cake is.

Do butter your silicone moulds VERY LIGHTLY and then dust with flour (tapping any excess out over the sink) before filling with your mixture. We want to try and avoid clumps of flour stuck to the finished cake as this doesn't look good and certainley wouldn't taste it. Buttering and flouring moulds always makes a massive difference though and means you cna still remove the cake hot if you have to !

Since I was home on Sunday with a poorly Oliver (who was rather snotty indeed), I figured it was about time to try and get another of these in the oven. As a test to see how quantities and mixtures worked out and tasted, the top part and bottom part were very different....

First of all, the mould was designed to be used in one piece. You fill the bottom side first, put it in the oven for about 30 > 40 mins and then fill the top side before putting back in the oven. Filling the base section first stabilises the top part, though you do need to carry to the oven (on a baking tray for support at all times) with care.

Recipe for Country Pound Cake

ADAPTED (from http://www.allrecipes.com/)

THIS FILLED THE LARGE SIDE ONLY AS IN PICTURE BELOW. I'D DOUBLE THE RECIPE AND PUT A COUPLE OF EXTRA CUPS ON THE MIX IN THE BOTTOM SECTION FROM THE SECOND BATCH TO TOTALLY FILL BOTH SIDES

3 cups all-purpose flour (plain)

3/4 teaspoon baking powder (next time, I think I'd double this)

 225g salted butter, softened ( I used salted butter and dont add salt

110g shortening

2.2/3 cups white sugar

5 eggs

1 cup milk

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

Basically, I creamed butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well between each addition. Slowly add in flour and milk (alternating between the two) until total volume is combined.

Preheat fan oven to 170degF

It's a LOT of mix. It came up to and over the top of the beater in my Kitchenaid !

A certain little person enjoyed licking the beater....

The mix more than 3/4 filled the base side of the mould. There is a photo below....

I put it (on a baking tray) into a preheated fan oven at 170deg F. After 1 hour, I opened the door and placed a silicone baking tray / sheet liner over the top of the cake. This was to stop the cake browning too quickly. A big cake like this generally takes a LONG time to cook. You could use baking paper to cover the cake instead - I like the silicone baking sheets for this though as it not only saves wasting paper, but also stays exactly where you put it - fan oven or not !

The cake tested done at 1hr 40mins. I should maybe have checked it a little earlier. As you can see from the photos, it rose by only the tiniest amount.

Texture is quite dense. It's a type of cake that would be quite good for carving into shapes. It was still quite moist when cut last night and is more than edible this afternoon. It wasn't even covered over last night and has been sat in the office at work. I think it should keep and slice quite well stored properly !

 On reflection, I think next time I would leave the silicone baking sheet over the top when cooling to lock in as much moisture as possible. I like to do that with dense type cakes (including Christmas fruit cake.)

As this cake rose very little and the top was nearly flat - there was very little waste as only the top crust needed cut off....

TOP SECTION

Well - this was a bit of a cheat. There really is not a recipe. This giant jumbo cupcake mould is a monster. A lot of people want to be able to make such cakes FAST, but so much mix is very time consuming to make and get in the oven

For this reason, I've been trialing commercial bakers pre-mix for genoise type sponge for various purposes and results in general have been good and exceedingly quick.

We're hoping to be able to start offering the Baker's premix in early 2011.

I used :

625g premix

180g sunflower oil (GRAMS - not MLS)

250g of water

There is no need to add anything else. Sugar, raising agent etc is all in the pre- prepared mix. You do not even need a mixer. A brisk mix with a wooden spoon to combine until smooth is all it takes.

This volume filled the top as in photo below. I think you would need approx 30% more to fill the base section.

As you can see - this rose a lot - so there was quite a bit of wasteage as the top needed cut level. I also covered this with the silicone baking sheet after about an hour - but this mix rose quickly and by an hour there was already a fairly thick top crust developed. The baking tray liner didn't cover the big domed top the way I would have liked. I think next time, I'd put the baking sheet over it quicker

Although a lot less mix volume than the Country Pound Cake recipe, it too a good bit longer to cook - just over two hours. Whether that's because I had it out and in the oven about 4 times to check doneness.... or something to do with the recipe - I have no idea at this time. Sorry !

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At the same time, I was also trying something else. Several people have stated that they would like to cut the mould in half and use it as two separate pieces to cook at exactly the same time but on different shelves of the oven. This poses some problems....

The mould is designed to be used as ONE piece as the base part supports the top part when filled. The base part also needs filling FIRST to enable it to do this. Cut in half, the top part does not have enough support and WILL fall over in the oven as the cake rises. I know at least two of you have done this :-o

In order to find a way round cooking this in two parts, I actually cut my mould in half yesterday to see how I could support it and how it would perform.

The base section was fine simply on top of a baking tray.

I placed the top section inside an 8" traditional bakeware cake tin with a screwed up piece of baking paper on either side. There is a photo below. I'm pushing the mould back so you can see the paper...

It cooked no problem and did not move in the oven - nor on carrying to and from the oven :-)

Sliced yesterday. The commercial bakers premix was moister and less dense than the pound cake recipe but did have a thicker crust. It was more crumby than the pound cake. Both tasted just fine and to be honest, I'd be happy with either. However, next attempt with baking such a big cake with premix will be how to reduce the crust.

By the way, the bottom of the top section (very top of the cake) I carved into shape before plastering the whole cake with buttercream...

Hope this helps !

All the best

Sarah-Jane http://www.siliconemoulds.com/ - silicone bakeware specialist cookshop