Vinegar for Chocolate Sheet Cake

Asked by Sunnysmile92. Answered on 26th June 2015

Full question

What vinegar should be used in the Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe, please? Ordinary white distilled household vinegar, or is it best with a specific type, e.g. malt, cider, red wine, white wine etc. Thank you in advance.

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Sheet Cake (on the Nigella website) uses vinegar to sour milk to use in the cake instead of having to buy and open more than one carton if using buttermilk. For this recipe it is better to use a mild flavoured vinegar and we suggest white wine or (apple) cider vinegar for the recipe as neither of these should be strong enough to affect the flavour of the cake.

A white distilled vinegar could also be used but we would avoid using a balsamic vinegar or a red wine vinegar as these can be quite assertive. Fresh lemon juice is another alternative and is used in the same quantities as the vinegar.