Full question
I'm attempting the Lemon Polenta Cake for the first time. My sister made it and I was in love. It smelled good in the oven but I looked through the oven glass to see an explosion - lemon polenta cake everywhere. I have never baked anything that has literally blown up inside the oven. What have I done wrong? Yours in messiness ... although it does smell like a delicious mess.
Our answer
Nigella's Lemon Polenta Cake is a gluten-free cake made with polenta and ground almonds (almond meal). The baked cake is then doused with a lemon flavoured syrup. As the cake is gluten-free it can sink slightly on cooling.
We wonder if the explosion is actually the cake overflowing from the cake tin. If this happens there are a variety of reasons but the two most common are that the tin is too small or too much raising agent has been added. The tin should be a 23cm/9-inch springform tin. Springform tins are deeper than regular cake tins and should be 6-8cm/ 2½ - 3 inches deep. A shallower pan could mean that the mixture will overflow during baking. The recipe uses 1½ teaspoons of baking powder and you should measure carefully and try to use 5ml and 2.5ml measuring spoons. These measures should also be level and not heaped.
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