Squishy, squidgy, gooey chocolate cake

Heaven and sinful indulgence collide in this little slice of decadence. It is very impressive to look at but it’s deceivingly simple to make; pretty much melt, fold and cook.

Squishy chocolate cake

THAT squishy

250g of unsalted butter

150g of chocolate with 70% cocoa solids

100g of chocolate with 50% cocoa solids

300g of light brown sugar

6 eggs, separated with the yolks lightly beaten and the whites beaten until they form peaks

cream to serve

Pop your oven on to 150° Celsius and grease and line a 23cm cake tin, preferably something that has a loose bottom. The cake is very squishy and won’t appreciate being turned out of a tin. If you don’t have a loose bottomed tin, cut a couple of long strips from baking paper and lay these across the bottom of your tin, letting the long ends hang over the edges so you can use them as handles for getting the cake out.

You’ve to melt the butter and chocolate. How you do this is up to you. A couple of suggestions are:

1. If you are feeling brave, put the butter and the chocolate into a saucepan with the sugar and about 20ml of water. Heat all of these gently over a low heat until they are all melted and the sugar is dissolved. Keep a very close eye on it and try not to let the chocolate be in direct contact with the heat (so put the butter in first to form a barrier between the bottom of the pot and the chocolate). If your chocolate gets too hot too quickly, it can burn or split.   
2. Heat the sugar and water in a saucepan until they are bubbling and then pour this over the chocolate and butter (which are in a bowl) and stir them all until they are combined.
3. Put the chocolate and the butter in a bowl that fits snuggly on top of a pot. Pour some water into the pot and with the bowl on top of it, heat the water over a medium heat until the butter and the chocolate melt. 

Cool the mixture down a little and stir through the egg yolks until they are thoroughly mixed into the chocolate mixture.

Spoon a spoonful of the egg whites through the chocolaty mixture.  Then fold through about half the rest until it is well combined, and then fold through the rest of the egg whites. Why should you do this in stages? I think that if you fold through the whole lot in one go, you’re more likely to knock the air out of your carefully beaten whites and end up with a flatter cake. If you do it in stages, the first spoonful helps loosen the mixture; the second loosens it further and the third folds through easier and therefore keeps its bubbles and makes the cake rise more.

Once your batter is ready to go, pour it into your prepared tin and carefully put it in the centre of your hot oven. Carefully cos you don’t want to knock more of the air out of it by banging it around the place! Your cake should take about 50 minutes to bake, but check this by inserting a metal skewer into the centre. If it comes out clean, your cake is done. Remove it from the oven and leave it to cool in the tin on a wire rack. The cake should collapse (fall back down on itself) a bit.

Once it’s fully cooled, remove it from the tin and serve with whipped cream. 

So, over to you, did you make this cake? Is this recipe amongst your top choices for a chocolate cake? What other sorts of cakes do you like to bake (and eat)?

I got the recipe from the February/March 2013 edition of Delicious magazine.