Seriously, Nigella, is she messing with me, or am I just useless?

Have you ever actually tasted your sister's cake though?

Funny, i've done a lemon curd cheesecake today from her website, i'm not convinced it's going to taste very wonderful but i'm keeping everything crossed, i've got strawberries and cream as backup ?

? Admittedly I have never tasted my sister's cake - good point lol.

I would NEVER bake a cake on GM 6, let alone meringue, so I'm starting to wonder if it's a typo!

Meh. I'm going to stick to plain sponge from now on

What temperature do you cook a normal meringue on? Maybe you should go by that temperature.

I love Nigella but I have noticed a good few recipes that are just wrong - one (I can't remember which) needed almost twice as much flour as it said!

Not sure if they are typos or the recipes aren't tested thoroughly enough.

GM6 doesn't seem very odd to me for quick cook meringue (ie the sort that is softly set, not dried out, as in LM pie and presumably this cake as well).

I would try reducing the heat a bit if it's burning but it doesn't seem a crazy temp. I definitely wouldn't compare it to slow cook meringue (ie the more common sort, where it's all about drying the meringue out)

I generally find Nigella's recipes extremely reliable. Have never made that one though.

How about 1/2 cooking the cake and then adding the meringue and cooking the lot for the remaining time? You'd have to be quick in getting the meringue on top of the 1/2 cooked cake, otherwise it might sink but I'd try that.

Oh not jut me then. Loads of them go wrong for me, I don't even think I'm a bad cook but I still can't them right. Jamie Oliver I don't seem to have any problem with.

Sounds like the Norwegian Cinnamon Buns

Most of her recipes are great, but I have really struggled with her brownies

That's the one hazel. I made them for a work breakfast meeting and they turned out yummy in the end, after an emergency late night pyjama-clad dash to the corner shop!

It's your oven, I'm sure of it! We had he same one and although I could make fab cakes before and now again after, the Stoves gas oven ALWAYS played tricks with me! ? I think the MiL thought I was all talk and no cake pans.

PS, sorry I haven't replied... it's until next Monday, after L's wedding. ?

PPS, once I figured out a recipe, it was fine as obviously you have with your cakes!

I've made it, in a Stoves gas oven no less, and it was divine.

I make her brownies at least once a week, and have done for at least six months, and they have been excellent-to-perfect without exception ?

It's you Lilly. You must believe in Nigella - the magic doesn't work if you don't believe....... <glass-eyed Stepford-wife-esque banal smile>

I dont think i have ever made a nigella cake that i havent had to fiddle with with in one way or another - largely because she will miss out a bit that she must think is obvious

i love the idea of her recipes but am not enamoured of her methods

her buttermilk birthday cake was the worst disaster ever - oh and her profiterole recipe/method was shocking too

her pav recipe is amazing though - and the brownies

I am a rubbish cook - mostly because I'm very slapdash and tend to think "teaspoon? tablespoon? should it be heaped or not? does it matter? naaah *plop*" However, I have followed several Nigella recipes with utmost diligence, still to find they turn out badly. Spoke to my friend who is a marvellous cook, and she thinks that Nigella recipes are very very flaky that way.

Goddamm salt scones was the last one. Seriously utterly disgusting. And I double checked it all when I tried it the second time and it was STILL salt-city. WTF? Any other scone recipe has a pinch of salt - this one has a teaspoon. A TEASPOON OF FRICKING SALT! No wonder they are minging.

I am discouraged. Although not so discouraged that I'm put off attempting the HFW meringue recipe that was in Saturdays guardian...

I sat next to the husband of her editor at a dinner a while back and he said that she's utterly pants when it comes to testing the receipes and most likely they are all flawed ... in my experience her stuff is usually roughly right but needs checking

I find her recipes often need a bit of a tweak but then are great, like her MILs madeira which I love, but she says you put masses of sugar on top before cooking which makes it inedible. My MIL who is a cook got the recipe off me and she said hers turned out rotten (I'd advised re the sugar beforehand though) so I dunno what it is. Also her cooking times tend to be a bit out for me too.

Like JK I have never had a bad Nigella recipe..

(although MrSc says I am very bad a following recipes and even when I think I am I don't so maybe I auto-correct... although he also loves Nigella and always follows what she says to the letter and he has never made anything bad)