For all the nutty chocolate lovers! She’s so confident and mature and doesn’t pretend to be anything she’s not. Don’t be fooled by the decorations; she will be satisfied with a simple dusting of icing sugar/cacao.
INGREDIENTS
1 SINGLE LAYER CAKE (8-10 servings) CAKE 250g dark chocolate, roughly chopped 100g butter 100g almonds, finely chopped 10ml instant coffee/shot espresso 10ml vanilla essence 5ml salt 6 large eggs, separated 80ml castor sugar MOCHA CREAM (OPTIONAL) 5ml instant coffee 5ml hot water 5ml vanilla essence 250ml cream 45ml icing sugar 15ml cacao pinch of salt
METHOD
CAKE 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. 2. Prepare a round springform cake tin (20-23cm) with non-stick spray and a dusting of cacao. 3. In a medium glass bowl, melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave. Melt in bursts of 20 seconds and stir to ensure that the mixture is just melted and does not burn. 4. Add the almonds, coffee, vanilla and salt to the melted chocolate. Set aside. 5. In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, whisk together the egg yolks and castor sugar until light and creamy. 6. Add the chocolate mixture to the egg yolk mixture and stir until just combined. 7. In a medium glass bowl, with an electric mixer, whisk the egg whites until medium peaks form (Tip 1). Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. 8. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin. 9. In a large oven tray, pour some boiling water and place the cake tin into the oven tray (Tip 2). 10. Bake the cake (within the oven tray) for 25-30 minutes in the middle of the oven. 11. The cake will still be a bit wet when tested with a cake tester/toothpick. Do not overbake, the cake will set once cooled. 12. Remove the cake from the oven and remove the cake tin from the oven tray and allow to cool inside the cake tin before demoulding onto a cake board. 13. Store the cooled cake in an airtight container. Only prepare the mocha cream (optional) before serving the cake. MOCHA CREAM 1. In a small mug, dissolve the coffee in the hot water and add the vanilla. 2. In a medium bowl, with an electric mixer, whip the cream until soft peaks form (2-3 minutes). 3. Add the coffee mixture to the cream and sift the icing sugar, cacao and salt over the cream as well. 4. Whisk everything together until medium peaks form (another 1-2 minutes). Serve the cream on top of the cake or on the side (Tip 3). Be careful to not overwhip the cream.
TIPS 1. Medium peaks are between soft and stiff peaks. Therefore, the egg whites will hold it’s shape when the whisk is lifted from the bowl but the peaks won’t stand up straight (as stiff peaks do), it will fold over. 2. Due to the high quantity of eggs in the cake, the water bath helps the cake to bake more evenly. The amount of water you add depends on the size of the oven tray. Either way, fill the oven tray with water until the water covers half of the outside of the cake tin. 3. I played around with Pavlova components on top of the cake, but the canvas is yours to decorate!