Adapting the Buttermilk Birthday Cake

Our answer

Nigella's Buttermilk Birthday Cake (from Domestic Goddess) is a perennial favourite. The vanilla version is extremely good in its own right so we have not tried flavouring it however we suspect that it is possible to make chocolate and coffee versions. For a coffee version we would suggest adding some instant espresso powder (this is a fine powder and different from instant coffee granules, but should be available in most supermarkets).We suspect that 4 teaspoons of the espresso powder, added with the flour, will give a robust coffee flavour. For a more muted version use 2 teaspoons.

For a chocolate version of the cake we would prefer to use cocoa powder as adding melted chocolate will change the structure of the cake. You will need to substitute some of the flour for cocoa powder, but as cocoa powder has slightly different properties to flour you may need to add some extra leavening. We would try replacing 50g (1/3 cup) of the flour with 50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder and increase the bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) from 1/2 teaspoon to 3/4 teaspoon. We would however emphasise that we have not tried either of these versions so can't guarantee the results.