Can I Make a Larger Vanilla Cake With Ermine Icing?

Our answer

Nigella's Vanilla Layer Cake With Ermine Icing (from AT MY TABLE) has a particularly soft and fine crumb, thanks to the addition of vegetable shortening. The cakes are baked in 23cm (9-inch) round cake pans.

To convert from 9-inch to 10-inch (25cm) cake pans you would normally need to increase the cake ingredients by 25% (or multiply all ingredients quantities by 1.25). This is slightly difficult for the egg as you need 3 3/4 eggs, so we would suggest using 3 eggs plus 1 yolk and increasing the milk quantity by 1.5 teaspoons. The baking temperature will be the same but the baking time is likely to be 25-30 minutes. Start checking at 25 minutes and bake until the sponges are risen, springy to the touch and a cake tester comes out clean when insterted into the centre. We would suggest increasing the icing quantity by 25% as well. However, please note that we have not tried the cake in this size, so if it is for a wedding then we would suggest having a trial run of the cake, to check the quantities and timings for your kitchen. The sponge layers can be frozen and the instructions for freezing are in the "Additional Information" box at the bottom of the recipe.