Chocolate-Cherry Cupcakes

Asked by HelgaHabibi. Answered on 22nd March 2013

Full question

Hi, I would like to make the Chocolate-Cherry Cupcakes from Nigella's "How to be a Domestic Goddess" book but I would like to make it as one big cake. If I did do this what size cake tin should I use? How long should I cook it for? What temperature should I cook it at? Thank you.

Our answer

It is usually possible to convert cake recipes between cupcakes and round cakes and a 12 cupcake recipe of batter is normally enough to make one layer of a 20cm/8-inch cake. As the Chocolate-Cherry Cupcake recipoe makes 12 cupcakes you would need to make a double quantity to make a 2 layer sandwich cake.

We would suggest that the 20cm/8-inch sandwich or cake pans are base lined with baking parchment (parchment paper), greased well and dusted with a little cocoa powder. Don't fill the cake pans more than half full with batter (bake any leftovers as cupcakes) and bake at 180c/350F for about 35 minutes, or until firm to the touch and a cake tester inserted to the centre comes out clean.

We would however emphasize that we have not tested this method and occasionally the conversions do not work quite as they should. Another alternative would to be to make a chocolate layer cake, such as Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake, fill the centre with a generous layer of morello cherry jam and whipped cream or chocolate buttercream and ice the top with the ganache icing from the cupcake recipe.