Do Nigella's cake recipes ever actually work?

[Puppywithattitude]

Did her store cupboard chocolate-orange cake yesterday, absolute disaster. Undercooked and just awful.
Anyone else's cake recipes are fine but this must be the 3rd or 4th one of hers which is useless.
Is it me?

Not in my experience.

I've made a lot cakes from Nigella and can't say I've ever had a problem with her recipes. I've not tried the once you mentioned though.

Are you using an oven thermometer? I found out after borrowing one that my oven was at least 10% colder than the temperature it was set at.

I’ve never had a failure!

If it is undercooked, just cook it for a bit longer, and check your oven temperature.

I only did two, they failed and so I stopped trying at that point!

Her chocolate and cherry cupcakes with kirsch in are very nice from memory. I'm not sure I've done any others!

Are they all coming out undercooked? It could be an oven issue maybe. I know you said other things are fine, but if you play around with temperature/timings it might improve.

They do for me.

I love nigellas cake recipes, I’ve made her coffee and walnut cake, upside down pineapple cake, her carrot cake and her chocolate cake and they’ve always come out amazing.

Why would you take an undercooked cake out of the oven? Just leave it in for another 5-10 minutes and keep checking it. If the top is a bit over cooked turn the temp down.

I'm glad it's not just me. I've got all her books yes I'm a sucker and every single one is covered in cross annotations along the lines of 'needs extra 15 mins' or 'doesn't taste of anything'.

I have particularly resentful memories of her Guinness cake.

Still, the photos are nice. The only book with recipes that consistently work IME is How to Eat.

I've never had a Nigella recipe go wrong! I definitely view her as one of the most reliable people for cake recipes - but I've never made that one.

I would say though that I've also never ended up with an undercooked cake because I test them with a skewer and cook them for longer if they aren't done!

I think timing will often depend on your oven rather than the recipe. With my current one, if it says 30 minutes, I check after 20 and it is usually done, or almost done.

I couldn't cool it any more as it was getting really dark on the outside.
I don't generally use a thermometer tbh, maybe I should, it was only supposed to be a quick throw together cake.
Sometimes you just need a chocolate fix with minimum faff.
May have to join Kate and abandon all hope.

I have particularly resentful memories of her Guinness cake

Oh this one is lovely and works for me every time!

Caveat: it is the only Nigella cake I have made.

I did turn the temp down Mrs S but cut my losses in the end.

Her clementine cake works for me. I think all others I have tried have been troublesome. I like Delia and Jane Asher best for cakes.

Yes Glasgow, How to cook works for me too.

Another one who starts checking with a skewer near the suggested cooking time and going from there.

If getting too dark cover in foil and turn down oven temp

An undercooked cake is the fault of the cook, not the recipe, sorry. Oven times should always be taken as a guideline, not an absolute. They can't make the recipe suit your specific oven, they make it suit theirs. It's up to you to adapt as needed.

I've never had a nigella cake recipe go wrong. I did have a BBC good food coffee and walnut cake that was nowhere near ready at the time stated by the recipe, thought it might be a disaster, but I just cooked it longer and it was great.

*how to eat

I make her Madeira cake and marzipan cake recipes all the time and have never had a disaster. I possibly cook longer than she states, but like others have said, I would treat cooking times as a guideline for any recipe, as every oven is different. I check 5 minutes before the end, and keep going until I am happy.

I've made her coffee and walnut cake and it came out fine.
www.nigella.com/recipes/coffee-and-walnut-layer-cake

Will use foil in future, never had to do that before.

I've never had a failure, and was coming on to say that her store-cupboard chocolate orange cake is a sure-fire success......!

Is your oven working properly? They do vary a bit. Mine has to be put on about 10 degrees higher than a recipe calls for, despite being a newish Bosch one (their build quality is not what it was).

With all cake recipes, results can vary somewhat with every bake, due to small differences in e.g. the exact size of eggs, the temperature of the ingredients, accuracy of scales etc. Just test the cake once cooking time is finished and pop it back in for another few minutes if it needs it. If it's getting dark on top before the inside is cooked, move it down in the oven and cover with foil or grease proof until it's done.

What consistency do you get with the Choc one *Tolles?

I’ve never had an issue with a nigella cake recipe. Particular favourites are the chocolate Guinness cake (which my 9 year old has also baked successfully on her own) and flora’s famous courgette cake.