Spruced Up Vanilla Cake Queries

Asked by vanessabaker. Answered on 8th December 2014

Full question

Hi there, I bought the shaped bund tin and have made the Spruced-Up Vanilla Cake it twice now and it looks amazing when out of the tin but then when sliced it is very heavy and dosn't look light and spongey. I live in Spain and the first time I used full fat yoghurt then the second time no fat yoghurt, my oven is a fan oven and I cooked it for 60 mins on 180c. The first time we put everything into processor minus the icing sugar the second time we mixed by hand. HELP please I need to make this for my party. What am I doing wrong please ? Regards Vanessa Baker.

Dear Nigella, I am planning to make the Spruced Up Cake next week, for a home celebration, and was wondering what you would suggest for a chocolaye variation. Should I include cocoa? I have the Holiday Bundt Tree Pan' by Nordic Ware. Is there any other exotic flavour you would suggest, that would go well for a dinner party for adults?

Our answer

Nigella's Spruced-Up Vanilla Cake (from Christmas and on the Nigella website) is popular at Christmas and at many times of the year. It is not the texture of a traditional Victoria sponge cake but is more like a moist madiera or pound cake. As the cake contains eggs and butter then a non-fat or very low fat yougurt is preferable. We are just wondering if maybe the oven temperature is a little too high which will make the outside cook more quickly and leave the inside a little under baked. Nigella's recipes (along with the vast majority of published recipes) give oven temperatures for conventional ovens but convection and fan ovens usually need some adjustment as they cook more quickly than conventional ovens. You shoud check your oven handbook for specific instructions but as a general guideline most fan ovens should be set at 20c below conventional ovens so you may need to set your oven to 160c.

Nigella has suggested a spiced up variation of this cake by reducing the vanilla to 2 teaspoons and adding 2 teaspoons each of ground cinnamon and ginger and half a teaspoon of ground cloves to the mixture with the flour. This would be qyite a good combination for adults, maybe served with some poached plums or pears. We have not tried a chocolate version ourselves so can't guarantee results but we would suggest that you try replacing 75g (1/2 cup) of the flour with 75g (3/4 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder. We also note that there is a coconut variation suggested in the "comments" section below the recipe on the website so you may like to look here for some extra inspiration.