Can I Bake The Sticky Gingerbread As A Loaf?

Our answer

Nigella's Sticky Gingerbread (from NIGELLA CHRISTMAS) is a spiced and sticky sponge cake that can be served plain or with a coating of lemon glacé icing. The cake is baked in a rectangular pan of approximately 20 x 30 x 5cm (7 x 11 x 2 inches. We suspect that it may be possible to make the cake as a loaf, but there is a difference in the volumes of the pans.

If using a 1kg (2-pound) loaf tin (approximately 24 x 12 x 8cm/9.5 x 5 x 3 inches), then this will only hold 2/3 of the batter from the recipe, so you would need to only use 2/3 of the ingredients. For most of the ingredients it is straightforward to reduce the quantities, but for the eggs we suggest using one whole egg and one yolk. As the cake is very sticky, line the base and all sides of the tin with baking parchment (parchment paper), with parchment coming over the edges of the short sides of the tin, so that you can use this to lift the cake out once it has cooled (or use a paper loaf tin liner). We suspect that the baking time will be about 1 hour at 170c/150c fan/325F, but start checking after 50 minutes and the cake is done when a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out with sticky crumbs attached (but not uncooked cake batter). Let the cake cool completely in the tin before removing it. However, we would mention that as we have not tried the cake in this form, we are unable to guarantee the results.