Hi Deborah, am I right in assuming you substituted the amount of sourdough starter recommended in this blog post (160g) into the Classic Birthday Cake recipe, and removed 80g each of flour and milk from the recipe to compensate for this addition? First let me say that because of the low baking temperature this cake doesn't tend to dome and is not a terribly high rising cake. Especially if you opt for 9" cake layers, this thickness of each layer is likely to be only about an inch. For a taller cake I would recommend using 8" cake pans. As far as the dense and doughy texture goes, I think this may be related to the variable consistency of sourdough discard. Depending on how long your discard has been stored in the refrigerator, it can be very liquidy or still rather light and fluffy. Older starter tends to have very little remaining gluten strength and will function more like a liquid in the recipe, which could be related to your longer baking time. This could also hold back the rise a bit, since the reduction in flour is going to reduce some of the structure of the cake that contributes to rising. You may find that your results improve if you use sourdough discard that isn't quite so thin. Try using discard that has ripened within the past few days and then been refrigerated. 

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