On the weekend I was super excited to have friends over to my place in Melbourne. You have to understand, between leading a double life between Brisbane and Melbourne, working full time and living with my best friend, I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to have people over, let alone know enough people to have over regularly! Perhaps word will soon spread that being friends with me has serious food perks, and I’ll have a full social calendar! But for now, I was really happy to have the couple over that were nice enough to house me for almost a month when I first moved down here. Seriously, I don’t know what I would have done without them, so I wanted to have them over now that we’ve settled in to our place, and cook them up something really nice! I finally had a chance and enough time in the kitchen to cook whatever I wanted, and make something really delicious.
I decided to go with an Italian theme, because we all know how much I love Italian food. Something about it just feels really warm and homely, and I love how versatile it is: you can make it for a simple weeknight meal, or really jazz it up and make something special! And with dessert it was no different, because if there is one thing that is non-negotiable with Italian food and me, it is dessert. By now I think you’ve realized that when it comes to me and the kitchen, dessert is the most important part of the meal! If only I could eat it for every meal, it is so much fun to cook and way tastier to eat! I find when I’m having people over or cooking something special for others, I always gravitate towards planning the perfect dessert first, and then figure out the main meal later. Probably not the smartest way of doing things, but it’s just how I roll.
When I found a recipe for a chocolate cake on Taste.com, I knew I’d found the one. Even though it involved a lot of ingredients I didn’t have on hand, it sounded so good I had to give it a go. I love a delicious, light and fluffy chocolate cake, and this one turned out all gooey and delicious, which was perfect for Melbourne chilly weather! Plus the recipe had a zabaglione sauce to go with the cake, which I had never tried before, but sounded like something I really wanted to learn how to make. I love recipes that test you and get you to try different things, and this recipe, although quite simple, was really fun to make! It was also not too difficult which meant it was the perfect recipe for whipping up alongside a main meal. It’s hard making a dessert when it is super time intensive and difficult when you have other things going on in the kitchen, and this was a perfect recipe for multi-tasking! It was also quite quick to make, and so I was able to whip it up, put it to one side while we ate dinner, and then pop it in the oven to give us enough time to digest that before diving in to dessert.
In the taste recipe they call it a tart, but this was definitely a cake in my books. But I guess whatever you call it, it doesn’t change the simple fact that this dessert was absolutely delicious! I think mine could have used a little longer in the oven, but it sort of ended up as a delicious pudding, which I preferred even more! But if you do want a cake, make sure you check that it is cooked through before taking it out of the oven. Otherwise I can attest that the slightly under version of this dish is absolutely amazing, especially as leftovers when heated up in the microwave and put with your favourite ice cream!
Ingredients
- ½ cup of raisins
- 1/3 cup of Marsala
- 275g dark cooking chocolate, roughly chopped
- 150g of unsalted butter, chopped
- 1/3 cup of warm water
- 1 and ¼ cups of walnuts, roughly chopped
- ½ cup of plain flour
- 4 eggs, separated
- ¾ cup of caster sugar
- Cocoa powder, to dust (optional)
- 4 egg yolks
- ¼ cup of caster sugar
- 1/3 cup of strong espresso coffee, cooled
Instructions
- Combine the raisins and marsala in a small bowl and cover with plastic wrap, ensuring the raisins are submerged in the marsala. Set aside for at least 2 hours but preferably overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a cake pan and line the bottom and sides with baking paper. Set this aside.
- Place a heatproof bowl over a half filled saucepan of simmering water on a medium heat. Combine the chocolate and butter and stir until completely melted and smooth. Stir in the warm water once combined and take off the heat.
- In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour and walnuts and set aside.
- Using an electric beater, beat the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until thick and pale. Stir in the chocolate mixture to combine, then add the walnut and flour mixture. Finally, fold in the raisin mixture.
- Use an electric beater with a whisk attachment to beat the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until soft peaks form. Gently fold this into the cake mixture in halves, ensuring not to over fold. Once both halves of egg whites are in, just combine, and then pour into the prepared cake pan.
- Bake for 55 minutes or until when a skewer is inserted into the centre crumbs cling to it. If you would prefer to have the cake more pudding like, leave in for about 50 minutes.
- Set aside to cool completely, and then remove from the pan. Dust with cocoa powder to serve.
- Combine the egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl using an electric mixer. Beat until thick and pale. Add the coffee and beat until completely combined.
- Place the bowl over the half-filled saucepan with simmering water over a medium heat, and beat constantly until light and fluffy, and a ribbon forms when the beaters are lifted.
- Remove from heat and beat for 1-2 minutes or until cool.
- Note: you should only make this when you are ready to serve. I left mine for a couple of hours and it deflated and went quite runny. It was still super delicious, but didn’t have the consistency I really wanted.
And that is really all there is too it. It’s no more complicated than any other cake recipes I have tried, and was pretty easy to make given how many steps it initially appears to have. Like I said earlier, it was a great option for making while multi-tasking, and I was able to make the mixture and leave the cooking until we were finished dinner which really helped with preparation. You could also make this ahead if you wanted to, I just wanted it to be fresh out of the oven and still warm when I served it, but you may not want that!
This cake was absolutely delicious. It was not overly rich or heavy thanks to the egg whites, and was paired perfectly with the flavours of the espresso. The addition of raisins and walnuts also helped to cut through the richness of the chocolate, and I found that it wasn’t too sweet which was really good. It was an awesome option for a dinner party, especially because it is relatively simple but packs a lot of delicious flavour. It also sounds fancy when you say what you are cooking, and no one needs to know how relatively easy it is to make!
I was so happy with this cake, and even happier that I had so much leftover! I enjoyed it for nights to come with some ice cream. The leftovers are perfect when you heat a slice up in the microwave for a minute or two, and perfect now that the weather is getting colder! That’s the problem with hosting people for dinner, it is dangerous having all the leftover food to get through, but it would be terrible to waste such tasty things!
Until next time, happy eating!
Ella xx
