chocolate jam cake

Hot on the heels of one chocolate cake comes.... yet another chocolate cake. I don't need an excuse. It is simply not possible to overdose on this food group.

This choccy cake is adapted from a Nigella Lawson recipe. But in true domestic goddess fashion I have used apricot jam (still sitting patiently in the fridge from the Halloween marzipan muffin glaze) rather than frivolously investing valuable euros for the cherry jam in Nigella's version. The goddess of today is miserly. But this cake is fabulous.



Chocolate Apricot Jam Cake (adapted from Nigella's How to be a Domestic Goddess)
125g soft butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300g apricot jam
100g sugar
pinch salt
2 large eggs, beaten
150g plain flour
1 and a half teapsoons baking powder

Icing:
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
100ml double cream

Heat the oven to 18o degrees C or gas mark 4 and grease a 20cm springform cake tin. Melt the butter in the microwave (or on the stovetop) then add the chocolate and continue melting. Stir together with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add the jam, sugar, salt and beaten eggs and stir until well combined, then add the flour and baking powder.
Pour into the cake tin and bake for 45-5o minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out dry. Cool for 10 minutes then take out of the tin and continue cooling on a wire rack. When the cake is room temperature, melt the chocolate and cream in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, remove from the heat, let cool in the fridge for about 20 minutes, then whisk until thick and smooth.