Chocolate and Almond Cake

This is a great simple chocolate cake, but the secret lies in the texture. The chocolate is processed to fine chunks, and leaves the cake really moist but also nice and chewy. 
We also ground our own almonds to make the almond meal, adding extra crunch.

Chocolate and Almond Cake:

200g unsalted butter
200g dark cooking chocolate
4 eggs, seperated
170g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g ground almonds (almond meal)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Grease and line a 24cm baking pan with non stick paper.
Melt butter and set aside to cool.
Process the chocolate in a food processor until finely chopped but still retaining a little texture.
Place egg yolks, sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl and beat until thick and creamy.
Fold in the chocolate, butter and almond meal.
In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
Gently fold in the chocolate mixture. Spoon into the prepared pan and smooth over the top.
Bake for 50- 60 minutes, or until just firm to the touch.
Leave to cool in the pan then serve dusted with cocoa.

Orange and almond cake

We found this recipe online whilst looking for gluten free desserts. We have a few kilos of fresh almonds to get through, so spent an afternoon shelling nuts and cooking this up for our gluten free friend!

The use of the whole oranges sounds bizaare (like 80's microwave cake recipes), but gives the cake a deep orange flavour. And because we ground up our own almonds the cake had a crunchier texture than processed almond meal (like poppy seeds but no need to spend the next few hours picking them out of your teeth!!!)

2 oranges, scrubbed and roughly chopped (with skin)

5 eggs, separated

200 g caster sugar

225 g ground almonds

sifted icing sugar 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a 23cm springform tin.

Cut oranges into quarters, remove pips and place in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of water. Place over low heat, cover and cook for 30 minutes until the orange is soft.

Once cooked, puree the orange into a smooth paste (e.g. food processor).

Separate the eggs and whisk the whites until stiff peaks form, then add half the caster sugar- whisk for a further minute. In a separate bowl, whisk the yolks with the remaining sugar until thick and creamy (about 2-3 minutes).

Whisk the orange mixture and ground almonds into the yolk mixture. The gently fold the egg whites in, using a large metal spoon. Place in the prepared tin and cook for 50 -55 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tin.

Serve dusted with icing sugar.