250 of Nearly Everything Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

• 250 g salted butter
• 250 g bittersweet dark cooking chocolate, broken into squares (Belgian is best)
• 8 eggs
• 250 g caster sugar
• 250 g ground almonds
• 150 g bittersweet dark chocolate, extra

Directions

1. 1

   Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2. 2

   Grease the base an 8-9inch diameter springform cake tin, and line with greaseproof or baking paper.

3. 3

   Melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler. Stir every so often and set aside to cool when there are no lumps.

4. 4

   Separate the eggs into two different bowls (put the yolks into a larger bowl).

5. 5

   Beat the yolks, then add the caster sugar. Beat until pale, thick and creamy.

6. 6

   Add the almonds, and mix to combine well (ensure that there are no lumps of ground almonds).

7. 7

   Add the chocolate mixture and stir until well combined.

8. 8

   Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

9. 9

   Gently fold into the chocolate almond mixture until well combined.

10. 10

    Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 40-50 minutes. Make sure the top does not burn, when a skewer is inserted there will still be some mixture attached to it, but it will be soft as opposed to uncooked (sorry, this bit is hard to explain).

11. 11

    Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.

12. 12

    When cool, remove from the tin. You will need to run a knife around the edges. Put on a plate after having removed the baking paper on the base.

13. 13

    Melt the remaining chocolate until there are no lumps (normally 2 or 3 squares go missing along the way!), and pour in stages over the cake until the chocolate is evenly spread down the sides and over the top.

14. 14

    This is very rich but is nice served with orange sorbet to cut through the richness.