new member - hello! & baking question re chestnut cake

[cdnyc]

Hi everyone. I just joined the forum. I'm not a professional - I just like to cook. I manage general cooking well enough but today was trying to bake - something I don't do often- and ran into some trouble. So I found this forum and hope someone here could help me out.
My son's birthday is coming up and one of his little friends is allergic to wheat, so I wanted to try and make a cake without wheat. Most of those gluten-free mixes are pretty awful, so I was considering a flourless chocolate cake when I came across a recipe for a simple cake made entirely with chestnut flour. Since it looked vaguely like a yellow cake in the photo, I thought I'd give it a shot. So I made it this afternoon as a test, and the inside of the cake is delicious but there is a burnt-tasting crust on the bottom and sides. While it was baking it looked great, it rose a lot and smelled fabulous. The recipe called for me to cover loosely with aluminum foil for the last 10 mins of baking, and when I uncovered it and pulled it out of the oven, it had fallen to about half the height, and now the outside tastes burnt. So what did I do wrong? Is it just that I cooked it too long? What can I look for as a sign that it's time to cover with foil so this doesn't happen again? The cake pan I used is a non-stick springform pan, and it's a pretty dark color - does that make a difference? Also my oven is a vintage 1940's model so it's not, um, perfect.

thank you!

[Mezzaluna]

Welcome to Chef Talk!

I'll move the question to a baking forum where it'll get more visibility.

(For some reason the system isn't letting me do that right now, but I'll do it as soon as possible.)

Mezzaluna