Chocolate Guinness Cake Runny Batter

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Guinness Cake (from FEAST) is made using the melted method, where the wet ingredients are heated together to combine and then the dry ingredients are added. This method tends to give a runnier batter than for cakes made by creaming, but results in a moist and slightly sticky cake. However make sure that the ingredients are weighed and measured accurately and you may like to let the Guinness and butter cool slightly if it has come up to boiling point.

If all of the other ingredients were halved in the recipe then the batter should be fine as the ratios of ingredients remain the same. However, adding ground almonds (almond meal/flour) will affect the finished cake as it will increase the amount of fat in the recipe. Ground almonds are approximately 30% almond oil and as the batter heats up the oil seeps into the cake. For this particular cake it could make the finished cake feel slightly greasy or oily and so it is not something we would recommend as the cake itself is already very moist.