Dessert is the main dish. – Corné
• 60ml cocoa • 90ml hot water • 5ml vanilla essence • 250ml cake flour • 125ml castor sugar • 10ml baking powder • salt • 60ml oil • 4 extra-large eggs, separated • an extra 80ml castor sugar • dark baking chocolate, about 20g per stack • 50g dark chocolate, melted and diluted with a little milk • berries • meringues • chocolate sauce
In our home, the The prettier, the better!
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Mix the cocoa with the hot water and leave to cool. Add the vanilla essence. Sift the flour, castor sugar, baking powder and salt together. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the oil, egg yolks and cocoa mixture. Mix together. Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until they form stiff peaks and add the extra 80ml of castor sugar, a spoonful at a time, until blended. Gently fold this into the chocolate mixture. Spoon about a 1cm-deep layer of the batter into the cavities of oval-shaped muffin pans (don’t grease them) and bake for 12 minutes. Place a spoonful of the milky melted dark chocolate on top of each cake to keep it moist. Turn out carefully onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
Cut strips of baking paper about 5cm wide and 2cm longer than the circumference of the oval cakes. Melt the baking chocolate and spoon into a piping bag. Pipe a wavy pattern on each strip of paper and let this stand for about 10 minutes or until almost set. Fold the paper around each cake with the chocolate facing inwards, joining the ends neatly. Leave to harden like this and then carefully remove the baking paper.
Decorate with berries and mini meringues. Tie a ribbon around each stack and serve with ice cream and extra chocolate sauce. >>