Very dark and moussey chocolate cake

This cake will be an (almost) guilt-free addition to the Easter menu this year. A serious hit of dark chocolate combined with some high antioxidant prunes with absolutely no added sugar or flour. I found it in Annie Bell’s Low Carb Revolution cook book and I’ve made it 3 times now for various occasions without anyone realising it’s a ‘low carb’ recipe. The instructions seem long but it really is an easy cake to make.

Ingredients

• 200g stoned prunes
• 200ml smooth orange juice (although I use water to reduce sugar)
• 125g unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for the tin
• 200g 85% chocolate, broken into pieces
• 1 tablespoon dark rum (optional or substitutable for your favourite spirit)
• 6 medium eggs
• cocoa for dusting

Method

Preheat the oven to 160º fan/180º conventional/Gas 4, and butter a 20cm cake tin with sides 7cm deep and a removable base (or springform sides).

Place the prunes in a small saucepan with half the juice/water and simmer over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the fruit is sitting in a small amount of sticky syrup. Purée the mixture in a food processor.

Gently melt the butter and chocolate in a large mixing bowl set over a saucepan with a little simmering water in it. (I do this on top of the simmering prunes to save energy!)

Whizz the chocolate with the prunes in the food processor (don’t worry that it turns claggy) then, with the motor running, drizzle in the remaining juice/water and the rum if including, at which point the mixture will loosen up and turn creamy. Transfer the mix into a large bowl.

Now whisk the egg yolks for a couple of minutes in a medium bowl using an electric whisk until they are very pale, moussey and doubled in volume. Fold them carefully into the chocolate mixture in two hits. Next – using new/washed and spotlessly clean whisk and bowl – whick the egg whites in a large bowl until stiff. Fold a third of these into the mixture to loosen it, and then the remaining whites in two batches.

(To avoid all risk of cross-contamination I usually whisk the yolks and whites in reverse order using the same beaters. As long as you’re quick, it doesn’t make any difference)

Pour the mixture into the buttered tin, smooth the surface and bake for 15 minutes until the cake appears slightly risen around the outside and the surface has set to a glossy sheen. It will remain wet in the centre.

Remove from the oven and run a knife around the top edge. Leave it to cool in the tin, then loosely cover and chill for several hours or overnight. Lightly dust with cocoa powder (or toasted almonds) before removing the collar to serve.

The cake is delicious chilled or at room temperature. It also freezes well.