This is an excellent chocolate cake recipe to have up your sleeve. It’s wonderfully rich and decadent. Sometimes I fold a couple of handfuls of white chocolate drops into the batter just before I pour it into the cake tin to bake.
Serves 6–8
Ingredients:
– a little plain flour, for dusting
– 500g plain chocolate (minimum 55% cocoa solids), broken into squares
– 125g butter, plus extra for greasing
– 6 eggs, separated
– 75g caster sugar
– 150ml cream
– 2 tbsp dark rum
– 1 tsp vanilla extract
– lightly whipped cream, to serve
– fresh raspberries, to serve
– tiny edible flowers, to decorate
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/gas mark 4). Butter a 23cm (9in) loose-bottomed cake tin and lightly flour it,
knocking out any excess.
2. Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water and allow to melt, stirring until smooth. Remove from the pan and set aside to cool a little.
3. Place the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl. Using an electric hand-held mixer or hand whisk, beat until pale and thick. Stir in the cream, then fold in the cooled melted chocolate mixture with the rum and vanilla extract.
4. Wash the beaters, then whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until you have achieved soft peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture in 3 batches, until evenly combined.
5. Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake for 25 minutes. The cake should be just set with a slight wobble in the middle. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. It will sink slightly as it cools.
6. To serve, cut the rich chocolate cake into slices and arrange on plates with a dollop of whipped cream and raspberries and edible flowers.
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Neven Maguire’s Complete Family Cookbook is published by Gill Books and available to buy in all good book stores and online at www.gillbooks.ie/cookery.