Baking Time for Black Cake
Asked by ZBR. Answered on 27th November 2014
Full question
Hello, can you please help me with the timing of baking Nigella's Black Cake? I notice Nigella's recipe suggests 1 hour at 180c and then 2 1/2 to 3 hours at 170c. The recipe is similar to Laurie Colwin's recipe, which just suggests 1 to 1 1/4 hours at 180c. There is such a big difference in terms of time for two very similar recipes, I just wanted some advice on this. Many thanks for your help, Ziska
Our answer
Nigella's Black Cake recipe (from Domestic Goddess) is based on Laurie Colwin's recipe, though has some slight alterations. One of these is that Nigella uses a baking method that is commonly used with rich fruit cakes - starting the cake at one temperature and then lowering the oven temperature after a certain time. For dense fruit cakes this is usually preferable as it helps the cake to cook through and reduces the risk of the top and edges burning.
We have not had any problems with Nigella's baking time for the Black Cake but you can certainly use whichever baking method you feel is more appropriate. We would however mention that there was an error in some of the earlier editions of Domestic Goddess. The ingredients list omits the soaked fruit mixture, so make sure that you use it in step 2 of the method.
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