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Very moist chocolate cake

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 2 drops of vanilla essence
  • 150 g dark chocolate
  • 125 g unsalted butter
  • 50 ml water
  • 25 g plain flour
  • 50 g ground almonds
  • Icing sugar for dusting (optional)
  • Whipped cream to serve (totally not optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 170° centigrade. Grease and line a springform cake tin. The recipe calls for a 7 inch, 18 cm one but I have used an 8” and even a 10” and both worked fine
  2. Grease and line the cake tin. Whisk together the eggs and caster sugar and vanilla essence until light and fluffy, this was the part of the recipe that called for the use of the processor but you can use a hand whisk, it will just take longer.
  3. Next up, get a large heatproof bowl and and place it on a saucepan of simmering water, put the broken chocolate pieces and butter and water in the bowl and watch them melt. Stir gently together.

  4. Take the bowl off the heat when you have a nice chocolatey, buttery syrup and add the flour, almonds and the egg mixture. Mix it all together gently but thoroughly. Folding is the recommended technique. From the usually reliable BBC, ‘Folding is to combine a light ingredient or mixture with a much heavier mixture while retaining as much air as possible. Add the light mixture to the heavier mixture. Carefully cut through the mixture with the edge of the spoon, working in a gentle figure of eight and moving the bowl as you go. Scrape around the sides and base of the bowl at intervals to incorporate all of the lighter ingredients into the mixture.’

  5. I can’t claim my folding technique would be up to Mary Berry’s standards but don’t worry about it too much, just get it well mixed without battering the hell (and the air) out of it.

  6. This is where you might be thinking, ‘this is all wrong, this can’t work’, the mixture is very wet, but don’t worry, it will be fine. Pour your mix into the cake tin and place in the oven. The recipe calls for 20 minutes but this has never been enough for me. Certainly check it after 20 minutes but I find it needs 25 to 30 minutes. The top of the cake will suddenly solidify and make a satisfying drum like noise when you tap it. When you are happy, take it out and leave it to cool. This cake will collapse, the drum like skin will break and crack but this is supposed to happen. With its crunchy top and super moist innards this cake/mousse hybrid goes down a treat with a dollop of cream served over it. Happy Birthday to me!