Icing Chocolate Sheet Cake

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Sheet Cake is a chocolate sponge that has a chocolate icing poured over it while both the sponge and the icing are still warm. We are not sure if the intention is to make the sponge and then turn it out and ice it or just to ice it on top, but unfortunately there would be problems in both cases.

The icing soaks into and melds with the warm sponge, giving a soft and fudgy cake with a slightly gooey icing. Making the cake in a round tin and trying to turn it out in one piece is more difficult than trying to cut the cooled rectanguar cake into squares. Omitting the icing will mean that the sponge too dry. As the icing is quite soft it may not support the weight of the fondant and could also make the fondant itself soft. If you are looking for a cake to layer and cover with fondant then the sponge from Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake would be more suitable.