[ceri green]

OH likes to take cake for his packed lunch and elevenses so recently I started baking cos bought ones are so expensive (well in the quantity he consumes them anyway!)
so a couple of weeks ago I made a victoria sponge and a lemon madeira - great success ( although sponge not as good as his mothers - she is a brilliant cake and pastry cook but cant do it any more).
anyhow, today i did the same again but with absolute rubbish results.....the sponge didnt rise much and was unevenly risen anyway, and the madeira fell apart when i took it out of the tin.

bear with me, i am getting to the point.............

the only difference from my previous efforts to this weeks dismal attempts was the fact that previouly i had had to buy eggs (as my chooks were on strike) so the eggs must have realistically been at least 10 days old if not more, and this week the eggs were all freshly laid by my hens within the last 2 days.,

could this have made the difference?
or would the cakes have been rubbish anyway      

[Val H]

I'd have thought you would get better results with fresh eggs. Had you pre-heated the oven? Also, query whether whisked enough air into the egg and sugar mixture.

[richyrich7]

We have far better results with our fresh eggs rather than bought ones. We always seem to get more mixture with ours, but then ours are much bigger than the shop bought ones.

I know it sounds daft but what do you mix them with, we have a food processor thing and a kenwood the latter makes far better cake, probably more air in it ?

[Ice]

Be careful not to over mix the flour as this develops the gluten.

[agapanthus]

It could also have been the flour. It really does vary a lot, even if you buy the same brand.

[ceri green]

thanks for your replies

it was actually the same packet of flour and of sugar that i used last time, so that couldnt have been the prob in itself.
i too woiuld have thought that the fresher eggs would give better results, but that was the only thing i coulds think of that was different!
so maybe last time was just beginners luck    and maybe i just didnt beat it enough or whatever.

but the madeira was risen ok, just fell to bits when i took it out of the tin!

also the oven can be temperemental so maybe it was just having an off day!

[Mell]

Sound more like you recipe catered for a specific egg size & your hens don't know that We always use fresh eggs, but I have ducks not hens(have had hens though) We also cook with turkey, geese , quail eggs depending what we have,  so one has to check the mixture consistancy seems right. If you are new to cake baking it might be easiest to start with a consistant size of eggs until you get more of a feel for it. All this assumes your mix of other ingredients was right ! The eggs themselve ie fresh v old should not make a difference in cakes

[Trillium]

I buy all my eggs from a local lady and find that really fresh ones don't bake as nicely as ones that have been 'on the shelf' for about 4 days or more. So, I always use my oldest eggs for baking and the freshest for breakfast eggs. When dealing with really fresh eggs, yes, there is a small difference in baking.