About Delia's Iced English Walnut Cake...

Asked on 16 Aug 2020 by Paul

Hi Lindsey,
I have been having trouble with the Iced English Walnut Cake. I have made it several times and each time it sank quite spectacularly! I checked my ingredients to ensure freshness, tried again with the same sinking results; I am using the Delia 18cm cake tin. I then decided to research what could be wrong and everything pointed to too much raising agent as a cause for sinking cakes. When I checked the recipe, it asked for self-raising flour and baking powder. I tried again, this time omitting the baking powder and the cake was a success. Please can you verify if the recipe should be plain flour with baking powder or self-raising flour without baking powder? Or is the error still on my side?
I have made many of Delia's recipes with complete success, except for this one.

Cheers
Paul

Lindsey, Food Editor replied

Hello Paul,

It’s true that too much raising agent can cause a cake to rise fast and then collapse.

Delia adds baking powder to sponge cakes with self-raising flour when the method is all-in one.

Generally, I would say that a sponge cake sinks because it is undercooked or when the oven is opened before it is cooked.

I am assuming when you say you’re using the 18cm cake tin you mean 2 x 18cm sponge tins.

Kind regards

Lindsey

Paul replied

Hi Lindsey

Thank you for the reply.

Yes, I am using 2x18cm cake tins and I never open the oven door when baking cakes, I learnt that one the hard way! This is the first time that I have used an all-in-one recipe, I will try a few others and see if I get the same results. I guess it could be my oven too.

Anyway, thank you for your support.

Cheers
Paul