Need to turn a chocolate LOAF cake into a birthday ROUND cake ... help!

[Snowstorm]

Nigella Lawson's "Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake" is divine and I know that my FIL would LOVE it as his birthday cake BUT I don't want it loaf tin shaped, I want it 24cm circular tin shaped, like a traditional birthday cake. However, have absolutely no instinct for deviating from recipes and so what I don't know is this ...

If Nigella's Loaf Cake receipe requires the cake to be put in the oven for 190c for 30 mins and then 170 for 15 mins ... then I think I need to double the quantity for the 24cm round tin and then put it in the oven for ...... at ...... temperature, reducing it to ........ after .......... minutes.

See, all going swimmingly well ... apart from the blanks.

So please, experienced bakers ... if you have any idea as to what adjustments I need to make (preferably without my having to try it too many times over as I've got to make the actual thing next Friday and we're all a bit sick of chocolate cake tasting already!), then I would be incredibly grateful!

TIA.
Snowstorm

Not that experienced but...you could make double the quantity, fill two cake sandwich tins...then follow her timings/temperature for victoria sponge? Then maybe a frosted filling?

It's a really dense, moist chocolate cake so my hunch is that the cooking times would be different to that of a victoria sponge ... just guessing though, hence coming on here!

Snowstorm, The depth of the cake is going to be near-as-damn-it the same, whether it is in a loaf pan or in a round pan, so no part of the cake is any further from the bottom of the pan (or the air at the top). That will take care of a large part of the cooking method. The middle of the cake WILL be further from the edge, but if the cake is as dense as you say, then it is not a victoria sponge and probably won't plunge earthwards if you open the oven door too early.
It is difficult to say without seeing the recipe but I would guess (and this is a bit of a punt here) that if you take the 30 minutes to 35 minutes, then check after the next 15 minutes (after its 170 deg session) and test with a skewer. If not quite done, cover with greaseproof paper to stop the top from drying out and give it another 10 minutes. If it doesn't work out quite right, there is always the "re-heat and eat with custard" option, but I think you will be OK.

Thanks for your reply silverwoodhelpdesk - my gut (reaction) is with you!

The recipe is:

Ingredients:
225g soft unsalted butter
375g dark muscovado sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1 tspn vanilla extract
100g best dark chocolate, melted
200g plain flour
1 tspn bicarbonate of soda
250ml boiling water

23x13x7cm loaf tin

Method:
? Preheat the oven to 190c/Gas Mark 5, put in a baking sheet in case of sticky drips later, and grease and line the loaf tin. The lining is important as this is a very damp cake: use parchment, Bake-O-Glide or one of those loaf-tinshaped paper cases.
? Cream the butter and sugar, either with a wooden spon or with an electric hand-held mixer, then add the eggs and vanilla, beating in well.
? Next, fold in the melted and now slightly cooled chocolate, taking care to blend well but being careful not to overbeat. You want the ingredients combined: you don?t want a light airy mass.
? Then gently add the flour, to which you have added the bicarb, alternatively spoon by spoon, with the boiling water until you have a smooth and fairly liquid batter.
? Pour into the lined loaf tin, and bake for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 170c/Gas Mark 3 and continue to cook for another 15 minutes. The cake will still be a bit squidgy inside, so an inserted cake-tester or skewer won?t come out completely clean.
? Place the loaf tin on a rack, and leave to get completely cold before turning it out (leaving it for a day or so, like gingerbread, it improves). Don?t worry if it sinks in the middle, indeed it will do so because it?s such a dense and damp cake.

*

You can eat it as tea time cake or have it with ice-cream apparently.

My MIL wants it cooked, roughly iced, decorated by the children (fine) and then served up for my FIL's 70th birthday lunch with cream or ice-cream. Have therefore been experimenting with different types of chocolate cake (my little family don't want to be guinea pigs any more though, they've O'D!) and this one seems to fit the bill the best, only I didn't want a loaf shape, I wanted birthday cake shape to feed 14 guests.

Snowstorm,

I think that to maintain the same depth of cake, you need to go to a 10" round pan (25cm) or even 11" (28cm), but that will make it quite a big cake and you may well run the risk of a soggy middle, and that is before you have eaten the cake. Also, as the recipe says that the inside will have a natural sogginess to it, it may be difficult to tell if it is properly cooked.

May be that your best bet is to make two bar cakes and put them together, either very long, or side by side. You would have to trim the joining edges so they butt up against each other cleanly.

Other options could be a 7" square (same capacity but only 3.5" to the middle) or to use a garland mould which has a hole in the middle. This saves you having to get heat into the middle of a large cake, and also means that no-one has to have the end crust, as there isn't one. Our 9" one would have a capacity roughly equal to your loaf pan and would, at a pinch, feed 14.

Sorry, I meant to say 2 x Garlands or 7" square pans. The squares could butt up together easily, the Garlands could be like a pair of spectacles, or a number 8.

Do you know I think you are right ... I think you have made up my mind for me. I've already tried/tested the loaf tin recipe/shape and know that that works and is good.

Think I'm going to make two loaf tins and then do as you say ... cut/butt and ice (just so the DD's can shove some decorations or whatever in it, as MIL would like them to do, so that it looks homemade and from them).

At least then I'll know it's cooked properly and won't be left with a red face heh!

Okay, thank you very much for your time and for helping me. Much appreciated.

Am now off to shovel snow!

Thanks again.

Snowstorm, believe it or not, its my job!

Can well believe it!!

What exactly do you do?

We make and sell bakeware; more specifically, Alan Silverwood bakeware

Ah! That explains a lot then!