Chocolate and almond cake

A rich and delicious cake inspired by Elizabeth David’s recipe for ‘gâteau au chocolat et aux amandes’. Influential twentieth century British cookery writer, David, had a connection to Rainham Hall through her friend and collaborator, Anthony Denney. Denney resided as a tenant of the Hall in the 1960s and photographed some of David’s most famous cookbook front covers.

Cakes and bakes
A freshly baked chocolate and almond cake. The cake is a rich dark brown colour with dustings of icing sugar.
  • Preparation time 25 minutes (prep. time)
  • Cooking time 40-45 minutes (cooking time)
  • Serves 10

Ingredients

  • 200g good quality dark chocolate, broken in to pieces
  • 120g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
  • 120g ground almonds
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 4 eggs separated into yolks and whites
  • 1tbsp dark rum
  • 1tbsp strong black coffee

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C and grease and flour a 20cm removable base cake tin.

  2. Put the chocolate in a bowl and melt over a pan of barely simmering water. Add rum and coffee if desired. When the chocolate is half melted add the butter. Stir until smooth and melted.

  3. Stir in the sugar and ground almonds. The mixture will have a thick paste-like consistency. Remove the pan from the heat.

  4. Beat the egg yolks and set aside. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. Stir the yolks into the chocolate and almond mixture and then carefully fold in the whites spoon . 

  5. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 40 - 45 minutes. 

  6. Allow to cool completely before removing from the tin.