Yummy Chocolate Cake #teamnigella
This gluten-free chocolate cake is a favourite with my children.
Unless you are one of those rare individuals that don’t adore, obsess, are mildly or totally addicted to chocolate you’ll love this cake too.
The recipe belongs to the stoic, brilliant and dignified Nigella Lawson.
Whatever the outcome of her latest trials and tribulations Nigella has once again shown how to stay calm, dignified and strong when faced with one of life’s curve balls.
As Jane Green so aptly commented;
‘Whatever Nigella has, in fact, been taking, may I have please have some too!’
I like many others was profoundly moved by Victoria Coren Mitchell’s brilliant article about John Diamond and his part in Nigella’s current drama. She so aptly describes how he roared in the face of his cancer diagnosis, out risked risk itself and faced death with his middle finger firmly stuck up.
‘He was funny, angry, rebellious, ingenious, ambitious and unforgettable. Twelve years after his death, he’s still more alive than half the people I know.’
So here’s Nigella’s recipe. I have adapted it slightly below to omit the lime and add the chocolate ganache icing to be more child friendly and incredibly chocolately. Heaven.
CAKE
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4/350°F, line the base of a 23cm / 9inch springform cake tin with baking parchment and butter the sides.
- Melt the chocolate and butter together either in a heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water, or in a microwave (following manufacturer’s instructions), then set aside to cool slightly.
- Beat the eggs and sugar together until about tripled in volume, pale and moussy. I do this using a freestanding mixer, but a hand-held electric model would be just fine too; obviously, by hand is possible but would demand tenacity and muscle.
- Mix the ground almonds with the cocoa powder and fold this gently into the egg and sugar mixture, followed by the slightly cooled chocolate and butter.
- Pour and scrape this mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40–45 minutes (though start to check at 35); the cake will be just firm on top, but still have a bit of wobble underneath.
- Remove from the oven and sit the cake in its tin on a wire rack to cool. Once the first heat has left it, drape a clean tea towel over the cake to stop it getting too crusty, though a cracked and cratered surface is to be expected; it’s crunch I’m avoiding here.
- When cold, ice with the ganache icing. see below.
GANACHE
1. Put a bowl over a pan of simmering water
2. Add the cream and chocolate to the bowl and stir as the chocolate melts. When fully melted you have your ganache is ready.
Tabitha’s Edit 
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