Secrets and chocolate

There is one thing I really hate, and that is if someone tells me they have a secret recipe and are not prepared to share it.  I find it very rude, because I am convinced that these secret recipes were definitely not their own inventions.  If I could have a secret recipe, I think I would have chosen this one. 

A week or so ago I took out one of my first cooking books that I ever bought - Gastronomic adventures of the Two Fat Ladies.  Don't know if you remember them, Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright, travelling around the United Kingdom in their motorcycle and sidecar.  Except for the chocolate cake, I haven't tried any of their recipes, but I cannot wait to discover more of their gastronomic adventures!

The recipe is called Adult Chocolate Cake, but seeing that it does not contain any flour, it is not really a cake, but more like a baked mousse and in their words it is outrageously rich and therefore highly recommendable.

I simplified the method slightly and also added blueberries as accompaniment and decoration.  You will find that the cake collapses slightly on cooling - don't be alarmed, it is supposed to happen, the addition of the fresh blueberries takes care of this.

225g good quality dark chocolate

225g butter, cut into small cubes

280g castor sugar

5 eggs

To serve:

1 punnet fresh blueberries

icing sugar for dusting

Grease and line a cake tin of 22 - 24 cm in diameter and 5 cm deep. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Break the chocolate into a glass bowl, add the butter and set over a saucepan of barely simmering water until melted.  Alternatively, melt on "defrost" in your microwave oven, stirring from time to time.  Remove from the heat an cool slightly.

In the meantime, whisk the eggs and sugar until very frothy and foamy.  Gently fold the melted chocolate/butter into the egg mixture. 

Pour the mixture into the cake tin and place it into another oven tin with enough water to come two thirds up the side of the cake tin.

Bake for 1 hour, then let it cool completely in the water filled tin, then refrigerate overnight.

When ready to eat, run a knife around the edge of the tin and with a good thump, turn the cake out.  Pile with blueberries and sieve over some icing sugar.  Serve with cream or ice cream.  It's a killer!