My favourite chocolate cake is moist, melts in the mouth, is easy to make and never fails to please.
My favourite chocolate cake is moist, melts in the mouth, is easy to make and never fails to please.
A number of you have asked for the recipe for my chocolate cake. I’ll let you into a secret: it’s one of famous French pastry chef Pierre Hermé’s - dubbed "The king of modern Patisserie" by The Guardian. I call it Suzy’s cake.
I vary the ingredients, depending on what I have in my larder, my mood and my habits. I’ve put these personal variations in brackets.
Serves 8 to 10 people
250g unsalted butter (although I use salted butter), 200 g sugar, 250g chocolate, 4 eggs, 70g flour.
Heat the oven at 180° (gas mark 6). Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a bain-marie and leave to cool.
Mix the butter and sugar for 4 minutes in a mixer, at medium speed. Add the eggs one by one, mixing for 1 minute between each egg (sometimes I do it for half as long). Turn down the mixer to a lower speed and add the chocolate then the flour. (I often add various spices, and always cinnamon).
Pour the batter into a cake tin. Bake for around 30 minutes, or until the cake has risen slightly and is cracking a little.
Put the cake in the fridge for an hour so it’s nice and cool (I don’t do this). Leave at room temperature before serving.
I generally use Valrhona dark chocolate cocoa beans, as I do with a lot of my cakes. Sometimes I use milk chocolate and bake it at gas mark 2 (on the middle rack). When it’s done its slightly caramelised on top and moist and gooey in the middle. Delicious!!! Most of the time I serve it with custard, on its own or with cherries in liqueur.
Some tips from Pierre Hermé:
"Serve with ginger ice cream, whipped cream, or custard.”
“We sometimes add raspberries: put a thin layer of the cake mix at the bottom of the cake tin, then some raspberries, before pouring over the rest of the cake mix.”