My first Cake-- what went wrong?

I've gotten as far as I can in cooking - its my specialty.  But I've never really baked before (except for ready-made manischevitz cakes on passover).  Here's the recipe I used, taken from some cooking website I can't remember what it's called.

120g self-raising flour
120g caster sugar
120g margarine
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder

Baked it for 40 minutes at 180 in a normal non-stick round tin.  And...nothing happened, it basically cooked, but never rose.  It weighed about 5 lbs when I took it out.  It was disgusting and dense.  I can't understand-- I used self-freaking-raising flour AND baking powder and I think it came out actually thinner than when I put it in.

Anyone know?

Were the flour and/or baking powder out of date?

did you swap the baking powder for baking soda?

Were the flour and/or baking powder out of date?

Just bought them a week ago.

did you swap the baking powder for baking soda?

Nope.

Tell us how you mixed things.

Tell us how you mixed things.

Bunged it all in the bowl and mixed until smooth with a metal spoon (wooden was too big and whisk was plastic and bendy)

Bunged it all in the bowl and mixed until smooth with a metal spoon (wooden was too big and whisk was plastic and bendy)

I'm not sure, but this could be the reason the cake turned out flat and dense - I think that the general rule of thumb for making a cake is:

1) Cream the caster sugar and butter/margarine together until smooth and creamy (either with a mixer or a spoon - mixer is easier and quicker) and then beat/mix in the eggs (and possibly the vanilla extract too)
2) Fold in the flour and baking powder with a metal spoon (this keeps the air in the mixture and allows it to rise in the oven)
3) Spoon into cake tin
4) Bake in the oven (tip - also try not to open the over door while it is cooking as it may cause the mixture to deflate)

I think it's the folding part that's important (you drag the spoon through the mixture and then turn it over, so that the liquid mixture goes on top of the flour, rather than mixing in circle - keep doing this until all the flour is mixed in) - it allows the mixture to stay light and full of air.

Although I did one yesterday that I bunged everything in the bowl & whizzed up with the hand mixer in one minute.  It was a British recipe using self-raising flour & baking powder -- and it came out just fine.

 

Yup. I've done cakes like that, too, and have never had a problem. This is very mysterious!

Over-mixing?  Sometimes that can cause cakes to be a little flat.

Is this the first time you've used your oven for baking a cake?  Are you sure it was hot enough?

Vicky

Sometimes if you don't mix enough there can be too few air bubbles, also your oven temperature could be wrong. You can get a cheap oven thermometer to check. Also, did you preheat?

Bunged it all in the bowl and mixed until smooth with a metal spoon (wooden was too big and whisk was plastic and bendy)

I believe that if you mix everything together at the same time you should be adding an extra teaspoon of baking powder since you are not mixing in air through creaming the butter and sugar together first.  This is what Dehlia and Nigella do at least.