Domestic gods/godesses: How do you make sure your (Madeira) cake rises

You need Cath, usually found on BT. she is cake maker extraordinaire, made the duck cake tilly posted on your other thread, and knows everything there is to know re cakes.

Can you not do half the mixture in each side, and then stick them together?

That's a good second option, but would have to cook the halves one at a time, as the top pan doesn't stand up on its own and has a hole in it. No great drama, but would be cool if I could get it to work without.

Just wondering in general what makes a cake rise - is it beating enough / not too much? Temperature of the oven? etc. Will shout for Cath over on BT too.

I've been thinking about this as I saw a rabbit version of your tin last night in Hobbycraft, and I just can't see how it would work? If I were you I'd do as Flowery suggests and bake it in two batches - even if it does rise I'd be sceptical if it would rise that much and evenly?

I'd be happy to be proved wrong mind you!

I don't know about encouraging them to rise to be honest as I try to do the opposite when I bake madeiras as I do them for celebration cakes. I bake mine on a low temp for longer and they keep a nice flat top - maybe a higher temp would encourage the volcano look?! I don't know - I'm better at decorating cakes than baking them ?

What I have found though is that it's really made a difference when everything is at room temp - the eggs, butter and milk. And I tend to get much better results with stork than butter.

I've never used a tin like that as I carve all of mine to shape so can't really help with that side of things. There are a few things to look out for with regards to making it rise - make sure you get plenty of air into your mixture (don't over mix it), don't have your oven on too high, ingredients at room temp (as HS says), turn off the fan on your oven if it's got one.

I always find 'lighter' maderias rise more (a lower flour to sugar and butter ratio) than ones will higher quantities of flour.