Chocolate Espresso Cake

My parents arrived yesterday as it is my Mum’s birthday on Saturday. Wednesday night Sands and I spent an hour or so drinking red wine and making a chocolate cake. This is a very rare event for us, the making of the cake part, have been known to drink red wine before!!

We made the Nigel Slater Chocolate Espresso Cake that we have made twice before, and is in fact the only cake we have made in all the time we have been here.

Anyway I stuck the photo up on TwitPic as I tend to do, and got a lot of requests for a slice, an invite to come over and eat it and for the recipe. I can at least share the recipe with you!!!

Ingredients

6 ounces (180g) fine dark chocolate, chopped
a small espresso (about 3 tablespoons very strong coffee)
10 tablespoons butter, diced
5 eggs, separated
¾ cup golden caster sugar
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
¾ cup all-purpose flour

Preparation

Line the base of a 8-9 inch shallow springform cake pan with silicone baking parchment paper, buttering the pan lightly to hold it in place.

Melt the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. As soon as it starts to soften, add the coffee and leave it for two or three minutes. Stir very gently, then when the chocolate has melted add the butter. Stir until it has melted.

Meanwhile, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer till stiff, then fold in the sugar. Mix the baking powder with the cocoa powder and flour. Remove the chocolate from the heat, quickly stir in the egg yolks, then slowly, firmly, and gently fold the melted chocolate into the egg whites. Lastly sift in the flour and cocoa mixture.

Stir the mixture tenderly with a large metal spoon, taking care not to knock out any air. It should feel light and wobbly. do not overmix – just enough to fold in the flour. Scoop into the lined pan and bake in an oven preheated to 350ºF for thirty-five minutes. Leave to cool in its pan, then turn out.

Note

When it comes out of the oven the cake should still be moist – sticky even – in the middle. As it cools the cake will sink slightly and the crust will crisp.

On cooling, the outside of the cake becomes sponge-like, whilst the center remains dense and fudgy.

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