Can I Add Chocolate Chips To The Spruced Up Vanilla Cake?

Asked by Chris16. Answered on 6th September 2022

Full question

Hi! Do you think it is possible to add some plain chocolate chips to the Spruced Up Vanilla Cake mixture without any problems? Or something else like glace cherries or nuts or even ground almonds? Many thanks!

Our answer

Nigella's Spruced-Up Vanilla Cake (from CHRISTMAS) gets its name from the fir tree-shaped tin that it is baked in. However out of the holiday season it can be baked in a regular 2.5 litre (10-cup) bundt pan.

We have tried variations in flavouring, such as adding ginger or cinnamon, but have not tried the cake with any additional ingredients such as chocolate chips or cherries, as the cake batter itself is quite liquid and our feeling is that these ingredients will simply sink to the bottom of the pan (though will come out on top of the cake!) rather than being evenly distributed. You could try using very small chocolate chips and go through a process of half filling the pan with batter, sprinkling over the chocolate chips and then adding the rest of the batter and another layer of chocolate chips before baking, though our suspicion is that they would still sink during baking.