Lining Cake Tins To Prevent Leakage

Our answer

Nigella's Liquorice And Blackcurrant Chocolate Cake (from SIMPLY NIGELLA) has a tender and moist sponge thanks to the very liquid cake batter. Unfortunately this does mean that the batter can leak out of loose-bottomed sandwich tins (cake pans) and fixed bottom tins are better for this type of cake batter. Putting the tins on a baking sheet may catch any batter flowing out, but does not prevent this from happening and in our experience if the baking sheet is on the small side it crowds the tins together making the cakes bake less evenly.

Lining the inside of the tins with foil can help but you need to have a large piece of foil (so there are no joins) and the foil needs to come up the sides of the tin all the way to the top, with a slight overhang. You may find it easier to turn the tin over and mould the foil around the outside of the tin first, then lift the foil off, turn the tin over and fit the moulded foil into the inside of the tin and tightly over the top lip of the tin (this helps to prevent the foil from collapsing inwards when the batter is poured in). Press the foil as smoothly as possible against the edge and sides of the tin, though you may get some slight crease marks in the edges of your cake. Grease the foil and line the base with a piece of baking parchment (parchment paper). As the layer of foil will give some slight extra insulation you may find that the cake takes a couple of minutes longer to bake, but check the cake at the time recommended in the recipe and if it is not fully baked then bake for 2-3 minutes more before checking again.