Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Chocolate Cake Recipe

Long-time Fairtrade supporter Hugh has sent us this recipe to celebrate 15 years of the FAIRTRADE Mark. It goes without saying that Fairtrade chocolate and sugar are a must!

Ingredients

250g plain chocolate, around 70%
cocoa solids, broken into chunks
250g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
4 medium eggs, separated
200g caster sugar (or 100g caster
sugar mixed with 100g light
Muscovado sugar)
50g plain flour
50g ground almonds

Method

Preheat the oven to 170˚C/Gas Mark3. Grease and line a 23cm springform cake tin with baking parchment.

Put the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl and melt over a pan of barely-simmering water. Or, if you’re
careful, you can do it in a small but fairly heavy saucepan over a very low heat.

In either case stir occasionally until the butter and chocolate are blended.

Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks together with the sugar until well combined. If you use the caster and Muscovado mix, the cake will have a lovely hint of caramel flavour, but caster sugar on its own is absolutely fine.

Stir the melted chocolate and butter into the egg and sugar mixture.

Combine the flour and almonds and stir these in too.

Whisk the egg whites until they hold firm peaks. Stir a spoonful of egg white into the chocolate mixture to loosen it, then carefully fold in the rest with a large metal spoon or
spatula, trying to keep in as much air as possible.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for about 30 minutes until only just set. It should still wobble slightly in the centre – this means the cake will have a divine, sticky, fudgy texture once it’s cooled down.

Allow to cool slightly before turning it out and serve warm or cold, by itself or with a dollop of thick cream, crème fraîche or Greek yoghurt.

For a more adult variation, you could stir a slug of whisky into whipped cream sweetened with a little icing sugar and serve it spooned over each slice of cake.

© Winter 2009 Fair Comment