Full question
I made the Chocolate Malteser Cake for a work fundraiser but I hit a bit of a speed bump though putting the wet and dry ingredients together. When I folded the flour etc into the malty-eggy-sugary goodness it immediately formed lots of lumps and I was left with the choice of either whisking out the lumps or leaving it to ensure it’s not over mixed. The cakes have come out now, not risen a whole lot, and I’m wondering what I should have done in this situation? Regardless, it smells divine! And covered in malty buttercream it’s going to taste awesome.
Our answer
Nigella's Chocolate Malteser Cake (from FEAST) has a base made from whisked eggs and sugar that has warm milk and melted butter added in. The cocoa, flour and raising agents are then folded in. Folding should be done with a large metal spoon or a silicone spatula. When you fold, gently lift the mixture from the bottom of the bowl to the top, to make sure that everything is incorporated.
The cocoa powder should always be sifted as it can tend to turn lumpy when it is mixed with warm liquid ingredients. If the flour has just come out of the bag or has been sitting around for a while then it can get compressed and this can cause it to turn into small lumps when it is added to liquids. So it may help to sift together the flour, cocoa and leavening before using them. If you are not that confident on folding in ingredients then you may also find it easier to fold in half of the dry ingredients to begin with and then fold in the second half. Usually you get a few white spots in the baked cake if you have flour lumps. But if you had a large number of lumps in the batter then it is possible that the leavening ingredients were not properly distributed in the cake batter along with the flour and could be why the cake did not rise as much.
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