This week’s recipe comes from Maxwell & Williams and Melbourne blogger @Georgeats. Styled on Maxwell & Williams’ gold mezze serving tray.
Serves: 12 | Prep: 20mins | Cook: 40mins
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 200g dark cooking chocolate
- 150g butter
- 4 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups almond meal
- 1 tablespoon espresso
- 50g caster sugar
- 50g brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
For the plums:
- 5 ripe blood plums
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 20g butter
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Using the double boiler method, melt the chocolate and butter in a stainless steel bowl over a pot of boiling water, ensuring the water doesn’t touch the base of the bowl. Once it is completely melted and combined, add the sugar, salt and espresso, and continue to stir until the sugar granules disappear.
Remove from the heat. Separate your egg yolks from your whites, ensuring your utensils are squeaky clean, and beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
In a large bowl, combine the almond meal with the chocolate mixture, followed by the egg yolks, and mix well.
Gradually, spoon by spoon, mix in the beaten egg whites, until they are completely combined, and you are left with a fluffy chocolate cake batter.
Take a lined and greased 21cm spring form cake tin and pour in the batter. Put it in the oven for 35-40 minutes.
While the cake is cooking, slice your plums and put them in a medium saucepan along with the other ingredients. Cover them and cook on a gentle low-medium heat until they soften and become juicy. Remove from the heat.
Once the cake has cooled, remove it from the tin, spoon over the stewed plums and serve.
Serve up a slice of this cake with clotted cream and enjoy with a glass of sparkling.