Fairtrade Spiced Chocolate & Almond Cake
Acknowledgements and thanks to Andrew Rose, Mezzo Restaurant, Conran Group, London for this recipe.
300 g Fairtrade, Dark Chocolate
100 g Ground Almonds
175 g Butter, softened
Fairtrade Cocoa Powder for dusting
175 g Fairtrade Sugar
1 tbsp Fairtrade Mixed Spice
25 g Plain Flour, seived
6 Free Range Eggs, separated
Clotted cream, to serve
1. Pre-heat oven to 170ºC.
2. Grease an 8 to 8.5" cake tin and dust well with FT cocoa.
3. Cream together the egg yolks and 130 g sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Mix ground almonds, flour and mixed spices.
5. Whisk the egg whites and remaining sugar to stiff peaks.
6. Melt the chocolate with the butter and leave to cool.
7. Mix the melted chocolate and butter with the egg yolk mixture.
8. Fold in the whipped egg whites, starting with 1/3 of the mix, followed by the rest.
9. Gradually fold in the flour mix, making sure that the batter remains light and aerated.
10. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for approximately 1 hour, until firm and springy to the touch.
11. Once cooled, slice and serve with clotted cream.