Burnt chocolate cake

[pontipinemum]

I made a chocolate cake last night for today.

The recipe said gas mark 4, so that's what I put the oven on. When I checked half way through cooking it seemed to be burning a small bit. I turned down the temp to 2.

When it was fully cooled I was able to gently cut off the small burnt layer. But any ideas on how to avoid this in future?

was it up too high on the shelves? maybe put it lower in the oven next time, like a shelf down or something

I put the shelf in the middle but next time I will try it lower. Thank you.

I'm very new to baking. It tasted really good thankfully

If the top is burning before the middle is cooked I put a “hat” of foil over the top and carry on baking.

Turn down oven next time, your oven might be a bit above marked temp as ovens vary. I googled what temp gas mark 4 is and it said 180, that to me would be a bit on the hot side for a cake unless a whisked sponge single layer. I bake most cakes at 160/170 depending on recipe so I'd experiment with turning it down a bit. Good test is make a few plain buns and bake a few at a time starting at 4 and see are they browning too quickly/burning and adjust temp for next batch until they are coming out looking ok.

It was this recipe https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chocolate_cake_48307 I doubled it and put it all into 1 large rectangle tin. I don't own round tins.

I love cooking but I am very new to baking. I think that's because I like experimenting and with baking you have to follow rules. I want to make DS's 1st birthday cake though so I am getting practice in

Cake recipes are usually written for a particular size tin. If you've doubled it and put it in a larger tin you'll need to cook it slower and longer, and as someone said, with a foil cover.

There are ways of working out exactly how much longer and cooler, but I don't know how to do it.

I'd buy more tins.
If you'd doubled the mix and put it in one tin then it's going to take a much longer time to cook.

Or make the same mix twice and cook separately in your single tin

I agree with foil over the top if it's browning too quickly

Doubling up on it and all into one tin makes for a very long time in oven compared to what recipe was written for, this risks overcooked edges and dry cake. Better to make it as specified, if you don't want to spend money buying new tins buy some disposable tinfoil flan trays, you can get round ones in various sizes and very handy for baking, can also be reused many times. A pack of 3 or 4 probably only few quid. The oven temp is on the high side but obviously the layers are only meant to be in for a shortish time, making one big cake means you'd definitely need to cook at lower temp. Plenty of time to experiment when you have mastered the basics of baking, ingredients are expensive! 😊