Ingredients
| 125g (½ cup) sugar | |
| 12-14 small mandarins, peeled, halved horizontally, seeds discarded | |
| 2 tablespoons mandarin juice | |
| 250g dark chocolate, roughly chopped | |
| 120g unsalted butter | |
| 150g caster sugar | |
| 3 eggs, size 7 | |
| 200g ground almonds | |
| 1 tablespoon cocoa powder | |
| ½ teaspoon baking powder | |
| 1 teaspoon cinnamon | |
| whipped cream, ice cream, yoghurt or crème fraîche, to serve |
This is a very dense, brownie-like flourless chocolate cake so a little goes a long way. You need to serve it with a creamy accompaniment to cut through the richness – my favourite is unsweetened whipped cream but use whatever you prefer. For the top I like to use small mandarins for the best look, but you could use fewer, but larger ones.
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Instructions
| 1. | Heat the oven to 180℃. |
| 2. | Crumple a big piece of baking paper then use it to line a 22cm cake tin. |
| 3. | Avoid using a springform tin if you can, but if that’s all you have then the paper will help stop the juice from leaking out. |
| 4. | Put the sugar in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons water and bring to the boil, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. |
| 5. | Once bubbling, do not stir again (you can gently tip the pan to help get even caramelisation). |
| 6. | Boil for 7-8 minutes until the mixture turns golden in colour. |
| 7. | As soon as you achieve a nice dark golden colour, add the mandarins, cut-side down, and let them bubble in the caramel for about 4 minutes. |
| 8. | As the mandarins collapse, take them out of the caramel and put them cut-side down over the bottom of the prepared tin. |
| 9. | As I remove the collapsed fruit, I move the ones from the outside of the pan into the centre – the whole process takes about 8 minutes. |
| 10. | When all the mandarins are out, add the mandarin juice, swirl around in the caramel to create a syrup then set aside. |
| 11. | Put the chocolate and butter in a bowl and melt over a saucepan of simmering water. |
| 12. | Remove from the heat and cool a little before whisking in the sugar. |
| 13. | Quickly whisk in the eggs. Using a large spoon, fold in the ground almonds, cocoa, baking powder and cinnamon. |
| 14. | Spoon over the mandarins in an even layer. |
| 15. | Bake for 45 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes in the tin before carefully turning out onto a serving plate. |
| 16. | Pour over the syrup (reheating it if necessary) to glaze and serve with cream, ice cream, yoghurt or crème fraîche. |
Recipes & food styling Fiona Smith / Photography Aaron McLean / Styling Fiona Smith & Aaron McLean