holy moly

Tomorrow is the 1st Advent Sunday. And to accompany the extremely humble advent candelabra we've got going on here, I thought I'd finally bake the prune cake I've been meaning to make for ages, the one with loads of Christmassy spices to really season things up. Googling away though, I found a recipe from Ursula Ferrigno, no cinnamon or cloves to speak of, but dried fruit that has been marinated in brandy and well, it suddenly occurred to me that there is probably no better way to get into the holiday spirit than with a Italian cake with a touch of holy water.



Torta di Prugne e Cioccolato (adapted from a recipe by Ursula Ferrigno)
200g soft prunes, stoned and halved
4 tablespoons brandy
200g dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
25g cocoa powder
175g soft brown sugar
4 large egg whites
75g plain flour, sifted

Place the prunes in a bowl and soak in the brandy for at least 2 hours, overnight is better. Heat the oven to 190 degrees C. Line and grease a 20cm springform cake tin.
Put the chocolate, 150g sugar, 150ml boiling water into a large bowl, stir until smooth and set aside. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form then gradually add the remaining sugar. Add the sifted flour and stir until just combined.
Spoon in a quarter of the egg mixture into the chocolate and stir well, then fold in the rest. Pour into the cake tin and scatter the brandied prunes over the top. Bake for 3o-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out relatively cleanly (don't overcook though). Cool in the tin over a wire rack and enjoy as is or inverted and sprinkled with cocoa powder.

(Alternatively serve with a glaze of 1 tspn ground coffee, 25g caster sugar, 1 tbsp lemon juice and 150 ml water. Boil for 5 minutes until the glaze becomes syrupy, then spoon over cooled cake)