Can I Make A Two Layer Chocolate Cake Into A Traybake?

Our answer

Nigella has several cake recipes that are baked in two 8-inch (20cm) diameter cake pans, including the Chocolate Cake With Coffee Buttercream and the Dark And Sumptuous Chocolate Cake. These cakes have fairly liquid batters and are baked in round 8-inch pans with preferably solid bases.

The volumes of these pans in total are very slightly less than the volume of an 8 x 10-inch (20 x 25cm) rectangular cake pan, providing that the rectangular cake pan is at least 2 inches (5cm deep). If the pan is any shallower then you will have too much cake batter and the cake could overflow as it bakes. When you put the batter into the pan, make sure that the cake batter comes no more than half way up the sides of the pan as these types of cakes rise quite a bit. Any leftover cake batter can be baked as cupcakes. The cake is likely to take between 30 and 40 minutes to bake, though it is difficult to be precise as we have not used this size of pan before. We would start checking at 30 minutes and then check at 3-5 minute intervals after that. The cake should have risen, be firm to the touch and a cake tester inserted into the centre should come out clean. Also, line the rectangular pan with baking parchment (parchment paper) with the parchment coming up the sides of the pan, so that the cooled cake can be removed from the pan using the paper. As these types of cake are very tender, you will need to lift and slide the cake carefully onto a wire rack as the cake could crack easily. The icing amounts are likely to be sufficient for the top of a traybake without changing the quantities. However, please note that as we have not tried the traybake ourselves, we are unable to guarantee the results.