Honey Chocolate Cake Sinking

Asked by jerrin. Answered on 19th August 2015

Full question

Today I tried the Honey Chocolate Cake and it sunk in the middle. I had added a teaspoon of baking powder as well as the bicarbonate of soda. Also, the cake was breaking and not firm. Please advise.

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Honey Cake (from Feast and on the Nigella website) can give variabl results depending on the type of oven used. If you are using the extra baking powder then you may also need to reduce the amount of water used to 125ml (1/2 cup).

If the cake is breaking up a lot it may also indicate that you need to reduce the amount of water, or the cake itself was not quite fully baked before it was removed from the oven. Make sure that you allow enough time for your oven to preheat fully. Also if you are covering the cake with foil then do this carefully as a gust of cold air from opening the oven door before the cake has set can cause it to sink.