emergency help please re baking cake in AGA

[TennisFan]

I forgot to buy my DH a cake for his birthday and the DC will exepct something later on.
I am picking them up from school in an hours time,and would have time to make Nigella's old fashioned chocolate cake.

But have just moved into new house, there is only an AGA for cooking and I dont have any insturctions or a book yet.

Does anyone have any advice re baking times? My instint is the hot oven, maybe around the middle shelf and just keep an eye on it?

thanks in advance

Bottom of top oven, put cold plain shelf in a few rungs above it after 10 mins.

Good luck!

And put some dble cream/dark chocolate in a bowl in the bottom oven to melt for the ganache covering!!

I am not sure if we have a cold shelf - would a baking sheet do instead do you think?

The "cold Shelf" is the plain flat sheet of metal that should have come with the aga.

You just need something to deflect the heat coming from the roof of the oven, to keep the heat down.

thanks, we have just moved into this rented house for a while and I can't find anything - so it is trial and error a bit with the cooking as there is no other method apart from microwave!

How many ovens do you have?

2 oven - equiv to gas mk 4 is on the grid shelf on the floor of the roasting oven with the cold plain shelf above. Mid-shelf is about mk 9 so ok for yorkshires.

3 oven in the baking oven, on grid shelf about half-way up.

4 oven in the baking oven as for 3-oven.

The cold plain shelf only deflects the heat for about an hour. For over this time ie for fruit cakes, start in the roasting oven and then transfer to the top of the simmering oven (bottom right in 2 over and top right in 4 over) on the cold plain shelf for the remainder of the time.

I found a super book by Caroling Blakely when I got my first aga (now on third) which gave lots of help and I thought that the Mary Berry book that came with it was crap.

If you have no mb book nor plain shelf, ask your landlord to supply them, but before you do it's worth having a hunt in the simmering oven or with the roasting tins for the shelf. It's completely flat for the older ones so may be hiding itself. Don't think of buying one yourself because they're not cheap and it should be supplied.

thanks tb - thats really helpful as this is the first time I have had to cook using this kind of thing, its a 2 oven one.

Since you're on your third, would you also know if i should ask about servicing etc.
It is oil fired, and at the moment the only 'heating' we have swtiched on.

I don't expect it has been serviced recently - but someone else mentioned that it should be done twice a year!

Yes, I would ask about servicing if I were you. I'm not sure about oil, but gas is once a year and electric once every 5 years.

Ask your landlord when it was last serviced, or it might say on the aga website. Does your tenancy agreement say who is responsible for doing it - there probably won't be any change out of £100 for doing it from aga. Are there any aga reconditioning people near you who could service it - as long as they use aga parts?

There are loads of aga books now, but a few years ago I bought 2 GH ones, but was a bit put out when I found the same recipe in both. However, I think the Caroline Blakeley one is the best, especially for the tips.

Folded washing on the simmering plate lid will 'iron' itself. If you sew, apperently the simmering plate is the ideal thing for sealing regilon plastic boning for bodices. The boiling plate is brill for darkening/scorching paper for treasure maps.

In England we had one of those airers that you pull up to the ceiling on pulleys. Sadly, where we are now, the kitchen has a false ceiling so we can't.

Their only downside is that they don't do grilling very well and deep-frying is dangerous. The only thing you have to remember is to use the plates as little as possible to avoid using too much oil. The crackling on roast pork is out of this world.

For Sunday lunch we used to buy a pork hock from tesco. Bring it to the boil in cider on the boiling plate with a couple of peppercorns and a bay leaf. Bang in the simmering oven overnight. The next morning take it out of the casserole and put on the rack in the roasting tin. Strain the juice - if you put a couple of sheets of kitchen paper in a sieve and then run it under the cold tap, the damp paper will let the juice pass, but hold back the fat. You can then reduce the liquid to make the most lovely sticky gravy. Then you put the hock in the roasting over, near the top to crisp the skin. We used to do the same with boned shoulder of pork.

The aga dealers do run open days, you don't have to buy an aga. It might be worth going to one to get a bit more of a feel for it.

Sorry to go on, but I love mine, although I know there are people on here who hate them.

I don't have a tennancy agreeement yet - so I don't know who is responsible for it; however as its the only cooking source i will be expecting the LL to pay for any servicing.

I shall add it to the long list of things to do - we have only been here 3 weeks and haven't been able to get hold of LL in that time.