Tuesday Treat

Chocolate & Amaretto Cake

This is no ordinary chocolate cake, it’s particularly indulgent; heaven for chocoholics! It is, needless to say, absolutely delicious – it has a fudgy consistency with Amaretti and chunks of chocolate running through it. The recipe is from Florence Knight’s cookbook ‘One’. Although it’s easy to make, it does require some time as it’s actually baked twice, but believe me it’s worth the wait… you’ll need a dollop of crème fraiche on the side to cut it’s richness!

270g dark chocolate, plus 100g

240g butter

290g Muscovado sugar

5 tablespoons water

5 eggs

115g Amaretti biscuits (gluten-free if required)

A pinch of salt

75ml Amaretto liqueur

Cocoa powder, to dust

Crème Fraiche to serve

*A 23cm round cake tin buttered and base lined with greaseproof paper

1. Break up 270g of the chocolate and melt together with the butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.
2. Meanwhile pour the sugar and water into a small pan over a low heat. Dissolve the sugar and bring the mixture to the boil for a couple of minutes.
3. Remove the chocolate and butter from the heat and pour in the sugar syrup. Give it a good stir and leave to one side to cool for 10-15 minutes (you don’t want it so hot that it scrambles the eggs).
4. While the mixture is cooling, separate the eggs and bash the Amaretti biscuits.
5. Once the mixture has cooled, pour in the egg yolks, adding a pinch of salt and stir to combine.
6. Whip the egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Carefully fold them through the chocolate mixture.
7. Pour half of the batter into the prepared tin and bake in a preheated oven, 180’c fan, for 30 minutes. Leave the remaining half of the batter in the bowl, cover with cling film and keep in the fridge until needed.
8. While the cake is baking pour the Amaretto over the crushed Amaretti and leave them to soften and absorb the liqueur. Smash up the 100g of chocolate into chunks and set aside.
9. Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes.
10. Scatter the Amaretti and chocolate chunks over the cooled base and spoon over the remaining cake batter. Place back in the oven for 20-30 minutes until a cocktail stick or knife tip comes out almost clean (there will be some melted chocolate over it). Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.
11. When the cake is completely cool, dust with cocoa powder, slice and serve with crème fraiche.