What Is The Oven Temperature For Holiday Hot Cake?

Our answer

Nigella's Holiday Hotcake With Eggnog Cream (from NIGELLA EXPRESS is a "self saucing" type of dessert, where the sauce ingredients are put on top of the sponge batter and as the sponge bakes the sauce forms in the bottom of the baking dish. The Holiday Hot Cake is flavoured with ginger and mixed spice (pumpkin pie spice).

This sponge is baked in quite a hot oven as this gives the sponge a boost and it rises and cooks quickly. The oven temperature is 220°C/425°F but if you use a fan oven then it should be 200°C and even then fan ovens can cook more quickly. In a regular oven the dish should be baked on the middle shelf. If you find the top of the sponge is catching then you can cover the dish loosely with a piece of foil after the first 20 minutes of baking. Some electric ovens have heating elements in the top and bottom of the oven and this can cause some dishes to brown more quickly. If covering the dish with foil doesn't help then you may need to reduce the heat. A temperature of 180-190°C may help, but this will mean the pudding takes longer to cook, probably 45 minutes. It is slightly difficult to use a cake tester to check if it is done as you can get some sauce on the tester, but the sponge should be risen and feel firm on top.