Full question
I find that it's difficult to get the bake for the Quadruple Chocolate Cake right so that the top isn't too crusty but cake is still cooked through. I appreciate the note in the recipe that says its fine to take it out of the oven even if tester is still a little sticky... but still I haven't quite nailed the balance yet, either over baking or under baking. I've tried the old 'covering top loosely with foil towards end' trick... already. I love the flavour of this cake, I'd just like to bake it better! Any tips on how to ensure even bake and when to know it's done?
Our answer
Nigella's Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake (from FEAST) is a moist and sticky loaf cake. The "quadruple" chocolate comes in the form of cocoa, chocolate chips, chocolate syrup and chocolate shavings. Loaf cakes can be slightly tricky to bake, particularly if the loaf pan is slighty shorter and deeper, as in this situation the cake can take longer to cook through, making the top lightly more vulnerable to becoming hard or crusty or too deeply coloured.
The recipe suggests putting a baking sheet into the oven to preheat. The loaf pan should be put onto this hot baking sheet as this helps to give an instant boost of heat to the bottom of the pan and should help to cook the cake more quickly. So make sure that you do follow this step. We have baked the cake in a conventional oven, but if you have a fan oven, these can cook more quickly even with a temperature adjustment. So to help the cake cook more evenly, you could try reducing the fan oven temperature slightly more (by 5-10c). The cake should be done when the cake is risen, firm on top and a cake tester inserted into the centre of the cake comes out with a few damp or sticky cake crumbs clinging to it (but not uncooked cake batter).
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