Moist chocolate cake

Before the cake, some info: many of you have been asking me about my vacation – thanks, guys!
I went to Paris, Berlin, Rome and London and it was fantastic. Although Rome was incredibly beautiful, the city I liked the most was Berlin. The people are warm, the food was delicious. I would certainly come back one day!

If you are interested in taking a look at my “adventures in Europe”, some of the photos are now on my Flickr.

This is another recipe I prepared before my trip – and this time I had a very special sous chef.

I’m not an animated film fan, but so many of my favorite foodies were talking about Ratatouille with such enthusiasm that I decided to give it a go. And that special “mission” called for special company – so I took Jessica with me.

She loved the movie and I have to admit I loved it too! Remy is so adorable and cute I kept forgetting he was a mouse… :)

After the movie, my sister came home with me and we decided to bake something. She was in charge of choosing the recipe – and of course she didn’t disappoint me. This cake is so delicious!

You can see some of the almond meal through the cake – I told Jessica to carefully mix the ingredients and she did follow the instructions! :)

Moist chocolate cake
from Modern Classics 2

- metric measures found in the book

300g (10oz) dark chocolate, chopped
250g (8oz) butter, room temperature
5 eggs
½ cup (115g) sugar
1 ¼ cups (170g) all purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
¾ cup (85g) almond meal

Icing:
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF. Line the base of a 23cm* (9in) round cake pan with non-stick baking paper – I used waxed paper sprayed with cooking spray.
Place the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat and stir until melted and smooth. Set aside.
Place the eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 minutes, or until pale and thick. Sift the flour and baking powder over the egg mixture and gently fold through with the almond meal and chocolate mixture.
Line the base of a 23cm* (9in) round cake pan with non-stick baking paper. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.
Cool in the pan.
Prepare the icing: mix all the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over high heat until it boils.
Remove from heat and pour it over the cake while still hot; spread with a palette knife or the back of a spoon if necessary.

* I used a 25cm round cake pan.

Serves 10