Welcome to Kitchen Queries, where the nigella.com team will answer your cooking or food related questions.  We’d love you to submit some of your recipe problems, dilemmas or queries for us to get our teeth into!

Please note, we are only able to answer questions selected for publication and aren't able to enter into personal correspondence.

• Dry Madiera cake

  Yesterday I made the recipe for the Madiera cake. I used your conversion chart for my measurements. I baked it for 1 hour as stated in the directions. THe cake turned out beautifully. The problem was that it was very dry. Please tell me what I may have done wrong. I have a newer oven so I don't think my temp. is off. i would like to make this again to take to a pitch in at work.

  Posted by basilmomma. Answered on 11th Feb 2011 at 12.00

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• Best beef to use for home-made Hamburgers

  I would like to begin grinding my own meat for hamburger. What would you suggest are the best cuts to use? Thank you, Rita Dumaine Sugar Land, Texas

  Posted by ritadumaine. Answered on 10th Feb 2011 at 12.00

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• Everyday brownies turned out like cake!

  I made the everyday brownies from Kitchen and they have turned out nicely, but the consistency is kind of bouncy like a sponge cake, rather than fudgey like a brownie. Is this how they are meant to be please? I had the oven on 190 as advised, but it is a fan oven-should I have cut the temperature?   

  I was given Kitchen for Christmas and have been working my way through it ever since- with great success. However, I tried (with much anticipation) the brownie recipe last week and it was a giant flop. It doubled or trippled in size to end up more like cake than brownie and dried out very quickly. I checked my following of the recipe and checked all of my ingredients thoroughly, but I cannot seem to find out where I went wrong! I even allowed for my electric fan-assisted oven and decreased cooking time and temperature accordingly. Please help; I was so looking forward to the brownies in the photo!

  Posted by ThronesDominations. Answered on 9th Feb 2011 at 16.30

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