February Cake

You know what it's like, you buy an extra pot of double cream, thinking that the Bishop of Ely or the Ukrainian Ambassador might drop in for tea and when no such dignitary turns up and the use by date is getting close, you have to come up with a plan. I decided to create a recipe for a chocolate cake, not the intense deep chocolate flavour of my moist chocolate cake click here for the recipe but a cake with a light chocolate flavour, utilising a good milk chocolate, I favour Green & Black. I apologise now for the fact that this recipe relies on a food processor and an electric whisk, but it's the first day of Lent, so perfect timing.


For this recipe you will need;
250g of self raising flour
250g of caster sugar
4 medium eggs
300g of double cream (sadly not available in the United States)
150g of good quality milk chocolate
1 teaspoon of vanilla paste
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Heat the oven to 180C, prepare 2, 20c shallow cake tins by lining with baking parchment on the base and greasing the sides with softened butter.
Begin by processing the flour and chocolate in a food processor until you have a fine, pale chocolate powder with only the odd speck of chocolate, this should take no more than a minute. Whisk the eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt until you have a thick pale creamy foam. In another bowl whip the cream until you have soft peaks. fold the whipped cream into the egg and sugar mix and finally fold in the chocolate flour. Transfer to the prepared cake tins and bake in the oven for 35 minutes. Cool completely before turning out of the tins. I sandwiched mine together with a butter cream frosting, flavoured with chocolate hazelnut spread and cream cheese. I sprinkled a few toasted hazelnuts on the top having spread half the frosting on first.

Notes:
Processing the chocolate in the flour makes it possible to achieve a fine grind, it also means the ingredient gets evenly distributed. Its a really good method of grinding up ingredients such as dates, crystallised ginger featured in the January cake, nuts, liquorice etc.