Chocolate and muscovado fudge cake

SERVES 10

For the icing 100g olive, coconut or vegetable oil 65g dark muscovado sugar 2tbsp cocoa powder 200g dark chocolate, finely chopped For the cake 200g plain or light spelt flour 1½tsp bicarbonate of soda 75g cocoa powder 250g dark muscovado sugar 75g olive, coconut or vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing 1½tsp cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C F/Gas 4. Grease a 20cm round springform cake tin with oil and line the base with baking paper.

Put all the icing ingredients except the chocolate into a saucepan with 60ml cold water. Heat until everything is melted, making sure the mixture doesn’t boil, then turn off the heat, add the chocolate at once and leave it to sit. After about 1 minute, the chocolate should have melted. Whisk until you have a thick icing and set aside. It should be cool by the time the cake has baked and cooled.

To make the cake, whisk the flour, bicarbonate of soda, a good pinch of sea salt and the cocoa together in a bowl. Make sure there are no lumps of bicarbonate of soda.

In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, 375ml just-boiled water, the oil and vinegar. Stir the mixture into the dry ingredients, then pour into the prepared tin (it will be quite a wet batter). Bake for 30-40 minutes until the cake has pulled away from the edges of the tin and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 30 minutes in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Spoon over the icing and decorate with sea salt flakes or anything else – such as grated chocolate you fancy,

Cook’s note

Be sure to use a tight-fitting cake tin, as the wet batter will run out if there are any gaps.