Chocolate Quadruple Loaf Cake Domed Top

Our answer

Nigella's Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake (from Feast and on the Nigella website) has a batter that is made in a food processor and gives a slightly liquid batter. As the cake bakes it will rise slightly and crack on top, but if it is excessively domes then it could be that there is a bit too much air being beaten into the batter when using a freestanding mixer. We are not sure if you are creaming the butter and sugar first but this will increase the air content and we would suggest trying the all in one method for a mixer by using very soft butter and mixing all of the ingredients (except for the chocolate chips) together at once until just combined. Add in the chocolate chips by hand to prevent over-mixing as if the flour glutens are stirred and developed too much then this can contribute slightly to the doming of the cake.

Loaf cakes can also be slightly tricky as they have a long baking time and if the pan dimensions vary slightly then this can affect the baking. Your oven has been checked but we would suggest trying a slightly lower oven temperature (160c/300F) as this may help, even if the cake takes slightly longer to bake. Also try roating the pan by half a turn after 40 minutes as this will help the cake to bake more evenly.