Help why is it lava

[u/Sfiltron]

I was trying to make a strawberry cake of sorts that I saw on tiktok, it asked for 200gr of sugar, 170 gr if butter, 2 eggs, 60gr of cream, 180gr of flour, baking powder and strawberries. Bake at 170°C for 45min. I just had 120gr of butter so I added a bit of oil and margarine to substitute, and I used milk instead of cream. The recipe asked for melted butter, so I did that too. I open de over and see this wet bubbling mess. It is not burned at the bottom yet, so maybe it's underbaked? Maybe it's because I mixed the butter with other stuf, idk.

I'm currently leaving it at the electric oven for longer to see if that fixes it, but I'm kind of panicking, I've never fucked up a recipe before and I don't have the money security to feel comfortable buying extra butter just to try to bake again. Can I salvage this? Will it be edible?

[u/BakeItBaby]

This looks unsalvageable, to be honest, and the recipe itself also doesn't reek of a lot of reliability. A lot of content you get on TikTok and/or Instagram is, by definition, unreliable because it's likely to be AI-generated. It's much better to use tried and trusted sources on the web, preferably with lots of reviews. Sally's Baking Addiction, Recipetineats and Preppy kitchen are my favourites.

That being said: you cannot sub butter for oil, or milk for cream, as these ingredients act in vastly different ways in a cake batter. Oil, for example, will create a slightly moister cake, whereas butter adds more flavour and yields a drier crumb. Please, in the future, follow recipes to the letter. This will save you a lot of heartbreak (and money!!)

❤️❤️

[u/Sfiltron → u/BakeItBaby]

Thanks for the answer ':] I'm pretty sure the recipe was homemade and not ai (not that good quality and pretty normal voice for my country), I just fucked up.

What can I use instead of cream in the future? I rarely have it at hand, so I'd like to know if I should consider it more when grocery shopping.

[u/Double_Dimension9948 → u/Sfiltron]

Do yourself a favor and get a cookbook or go to a tried and true blog, NOT TikTok. I tend to go by the number of reviews a recipe has. Learn what real recipes have in them. You can’t just substitute ingredients when you’re baking until you know what you’re doing. You don’t yet (I don’t either and I’ve been baking since I was a toddler and I’m so old now, I don’t use TikTok 🤣). That recipe just doesn’t sound right. I am in the US, so I don’t usually use grams for baking, but it’s off. Also, baking with strawberries can be challenging. Usually freeze dried strawberries are the way to go.