Shane Smith

There's many questions, I guess.

That is one of them.

Why do my cherries sink in the Madeira cake?

And do you know Neville McGuire?

They're the three top ones I always get asked.

So the sinking in the middle really comes down to either overmixing initially, getting too much air in there.

So you've created such a light sponge that it kind of collapses in on itself and also having too much raising agent.

Again, that it rises too fast.

It becomes a little bit unstable and then it dips in the middle.

It's still going to taste fine, but you might just have to put in a little bit of an extra.

That's where the toppings come in handy, whether it's cream and fruit.

You can kind of hide that little dip in the middle, yeah.

Oven, yes.

So again, if your oven temperature is too hot, then your cake can kind of rise too fast initially and then it can kind of dip down and sink in the middle as well.

If you open your oven door midway through baking, then that's going to allow hot air out, cold air goes in and then your cake does dip in the middle.

So you're always better to pop it in and just forget about it.

Yes, exactly.

I kind of find with some ovens, if it's a gas oven especially, there can be hot spots in the oven.

So sometimes you'll figure out, oh, the back right-hand corner tends to brown a little bit more.

So if your cake takes about 35, 40 minutes to bake, you can open the oven about five minutes before or so it's due to come out, and then you can do a little bit of turning at that point, just so the structure of the loaf will hold together, that it won't dip in the middle on you, but definitely not within the first 10, 15 minutes.