A firm cake recipe needed

[chocolatek]

Hi,
I need a cake recipe with a firm texture . One that I can cut and sculpt. Your help is greatly appreciated. K

[momoreg]

What flavor?

[chocolatek]

Vanilla, lemon, chocolate.....any flavor!!!

[kthull]

Not to sound arrogant, but what's the point if you don't care about the flavor?

[bigbuns]

Have you tried pound cake? I've used it for several slightly sculptured cakes.
I suppose it depends on how much slicing and dicing you need to do?

[Nicholas]

I've yet to try this myself, nor do I have an authority on this subject, but I've seen books that describe basic sculpting, as in, rectangular sponge cakes, and cutting them out to shapes of bears, houses, and what not. They reccomend a basic sponge cake recipe.

[momoreg]

Anything with melted choc in the recipe will firm up really well in the fridge, making it perfect for sculpting.

[chocolatek]

thank you all.

[scott123]

There are two ways to firmer cakes.

Less air, more protein. Less air gives you a denser product, more protein, a chewier one.

Less air can be acheive by using less leavening or by creaming the sugar/butter for a shorter period of time.

More protein can be achieved by using part bread flour or by mixing the finished batter longer than normal. Creating more gluten is tricky in that the batter will become more elastic and thus have more tendency to hold bubbles.

I'd take your favorite recipe and just omit the baking powder.

Or use a tradtionally dense cake like pound cake, as previously mentioned.