Given to us by a wonderful cook called Françoise, this is an easy, traditional french chocolate cake recipe, that can be made for any special occasion (I did an Easter version) or just as a treat. Whipped egg whites are used to make it rise.
Ingredients
For the cake: 150g dark chocolate, 100g unsalted butter, 5 medium eggs, 150g caster sugar, 100g flour.
For the ganache topping: 150g double cream, 150g dark chocolate
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 160C and grease and flour an 18cm round cake tin. Melt the chocolate and butter gently in a saucepan. Separate the eggs yolks and egg whites. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until smooth. Add the melted chocolate mix to the yolks and blend together. Add the flour and stir until well mixed. Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Fold gently into the rest of the cake mix, being careful not to knock out the air. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Leave to cool. Make the ganache by heating the cream to boiling point, take off the heat and stir in the chocolate until melted and smooth. Leave to cool in the fridge until a spreading consistency is reached. Spread over the cooled cake. decorate according to occasion or just with a sprinkling of icing sugar. Serve with strawberries or raspberries.
