Where did I go wrong with my choc cake?

[WestYorkshireGirl]

Ok. So today I made a Mary Berry choc cake. There were 2 sandwich tins and I put them in the fan oven on the top shelf. They wouldn't fit equally next to each other so one was at the front and one more at the back. After 25 mins one was fine, but one had sunken a lot in the middle and looked uncooked (was also gooey to the touch). I left it it in for another 10 mins after checking it again after 5 mins and it cooked but was quite crumbly and a bit dry.
How do you deal with 2 cake tins at the the same time and stop cakes being dry and crumbly? I would like it a bit mire dense. Thanks.

My oven is hotter at the back than the front, so I tend to put cakes on separate shelves, but both at the front of the oven.

Which recipe was it? For choc cake, I'd recommend the BBC good food Ultimate chocolate cake, it's the chocolaty-est cake ever. Very moist and rich.

If you've got a fan oven, it should be fine to put them on separate shelves, just try not to put them directly above/below each other as that seems to slow down the lower one a bit.

Thank you - I will try these tips this weekend as need to bake it for real for DD's birthday!

if you have a wilful oven you are best to make a cake that does in a single tin...then the most you have to do is whip it round to keep it from singeing on one side.

the bbc good food cola cake is delicious, and very easy and quick to do, Recipe here ...just make half as much icing again as the recipe...it's a bit stingy.