Serves: 8 
Preparation: 30 minutes  
Cooking: 40 minutes  
Refrigeration: 30 minutes  

Described as “the chocolate book to end all chocolate books”, Le Cordon Bleu’s Chocolate Bible is a must-have for chocoholics everywhere. Over 100 years of experience and expertise from the famous French cookery school has gone into the recipes… here’s one for you to try at home…


Ingredients

For the cake  

  • 150g dark chocolate  
  • 170g soft unsalted butter  
  • 115g soft dark or light brown sugar  
  • 3 egg yolks  
  • 175g ground almonds  
  • 3 egg whites  
  • 35g caster sugar  

For the chantilly cream  

  • 250ml whipping cream  
  • 2 or 3 drops vanilla extract  
  • 25g icing sugar  

For the decoration  

  • 2 tbsp sliced almonds  

Directions

1Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F). Butter a 22 cm diameter bundt tin or Kugelhopf mould.

For the cake  

1Chop the chocolate and melt in a bain-marie over low heat. Remove from the heat and cool.

2Place the butter in a bowl and beat until smooth. Blend in the brown sugar and continue beating until creamy. Add the yolks, one at a time, to the butter-sugar mixture, beating well after each addition. Fold in the ground almonds and the melted chocolate; set aside.

3Whisk the egg whites, gradually adding the sugar, until they are smooth and shiny and stiff peaks form.

4Add 1⁄3 of the egg whites to the chocolate mixture to lighten it then gently fold in the remainder.

5Pour the batter into the prepared mould and bake for 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool before turning out onto a rack.

For the chantilly cream  

1Combine the cream and vanilla extract and whisk until the cream begins to stiffen. Add the icing sugar and continue whisking until the cream is firm and clings to the whisk.

2Fit a piping bag with a star nozzle, fill it with the Chantilly cream and decorate the top of the cake; sprinkle with sliced almonds.

CHEF’S TIP 

Instead of soft brown sugar, Demerara sugar could be used. When making Chantilly cream, use a deep bowl; chill it and the cream 15 minutes before whisking or beating. 


Want more mouth-watering recipes? Order this wonderful book by clicking the link below!

Le Cordon Bleu Chocolate Bible
165 Recipes From the Famous French Culinary School
Published by Grub Street

1 COMMENT

  1. mine did not turn out anything like the picture, just a chocolate mess! and not much of it so I really dont know where I went wrong as usually I am quite good at baking!

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