Mega Chocolate Fudge Cake

PG tested

Anyone who knows Jamie Oliver knows that he doesn't just eat salad all day. He likes meat, butter and sweets -- in moderation.

I mixed it in a food processor as he suggests and made the cake for my visiting niece. Both of us were surprised that it wasn't too sweet, though I was happier about that than she was. Yummy.

-- Bob Batz Jr.

• 7 ounces good-quality bittersweet chocolate (60-percent cocoa solids), or 1 heaped cup of chips
• 3/4 cup butter, plus extra for greasing
• 2/3 cup packed soft brown sugar
• 2/3 cup skinned almonds
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, divided
• Pinch of salt
• 4 large eggs, preferably free-range or organic
• 1 1/3 cups self-rising flour
• 1/4 pound soft fudge
• Creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Break up the chocolate, put it into a food processor with the butter, sugar, almonds, 1 tablespoon of the cocoa powder, and the salt, and whiz until smooth. Crack your eggs, one at a time, into the food processor and add the flour. Whiz again until smooth.

Get a deep baking pan roughly 10-by-10 inches in size. Butter the dish really well and sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of cocoa powder over it. Shake it around a bit so it lightly coats the whole surface of the pan. Pour the cake batter into the pan, using a spatula to scrape it all out of the processor. Break the fudge into pieces and sprinkle these over the top of the cake batter, pushing any larger pieces down into the batter. Pop the baking pan into the preheated oven and cook for 18 to 20 minutes. Take the cake out of the oven and stick a fork into the middle of it. If there's a little bit of cake mixture on the fork when you pull it out, that's OK -- you want the cake to still be a little moist inside so that it's nice and squidgy. However, if it seems a bit wobbly, pop it back into the oven for another 3 to 5 minutes to firm up a bit.

Let your cake cool slightly and serve it warm and gooey. Lovely with a dollop of creme fraiche, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or a bit of heavy cream. Serves 8.

-- "Jamie's Food Revolution" by Jamie Oliver (Hyperion, 2009)

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