Lemon cake problems

[LotusCakeStudio]

Almost missed your post!

I'm using a vegan egg replacer. It actually works surprisingly well once you get to know it (the suggested ratios are worthless). I did toy with mixing times and nothing seems to work. Hmmm... excessive water... even though the amount of liquid in it never affected it before, who the heck knows what's going on with this recipe so I will also try reducing the liquid a bit. Thank you for your input.

Originally Posted by cookieguy

Trying to bake a cake with oil, all purpose flour and wild acid. You're brave. You didn't mention if you have any emulsification. I'm guessing this cake will hold very little air as you have no plastic fats to trap the air. Do you have very large irregular size air bubbles? The batter probably has a very high specific gravity (over 1.00). Also, keep in mind, this is a cake batter, we are not developing gluten here so be careful with extended mixing. Could you replace part of the oil with a plastic fat such as Crisco? Could you get your hands on some cake flour. I would leave baking powder in. It is your only source of repeatability as far as leavening is concerned. Baking powder is balanced so that both the acid and the soda are mostly gone when baking is done. Uping the soda is risky. If the soda is not all used up you will eventually taste it. Excessive water in the formula can also cause shrinkage. Good luck.

[choco101]

Hi LCS, you have my support, and good luck.

[sucrechef]

Sorry I didn't weigh in earlier, I'm new to the site.
My only suggestion after reading all the other posts is to try going back to your original recipe and simply substituting lemon extract for the vanilla extract. Most grocery stores should have it...if they don't you can get some from The Spice House located in Evanston Illinois.

www.thespicehouse.com

This is a great site for just about any spice or flavoring you could want.

[LotusCakeStudio]

It appears that the problem is SOLVED! I tried every combination of what could be contributing to the problem and I am very happy with what came out of the oven 30 minutes ago. I used lot less lemon juice (2/3 less) and to compensate, added even more lemon zest and a small amount of lemon oil. I also further reduced the baking powder to the point where there's less than half of what the original called for. Then I remembered when I first made this cake- I used to whisk it by hand until just incorporated (less gluten) because that's when my arm started getting tired. So "until just incoporated" is what I did today as well. So between all those things, normal looking layers came out. They've been cooling for 30 minutes and no sinking, shrinking, flattening, or guminess! HURRAH! I have no idea how or why the original recipe stopped working, but at this point, I don't even care anymore! I finally have it down! Thanks to everyone for their input!
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Originally Posted by sucrechef

My only suggestion after reading all the other posts is to try going back to your original recipe and simply substituting lemon extract for the vanilla extract.

In my original post, I mentioned that I already left out the vanilla because it took off the tangy edge of lemon that I like so much. On a side note, I don't like to use lemon extract because it leaves an alcohol after taste.

BTW, welcome to the board!