“This recipe came from necessity. I needed a dessert for a catering job that was Christmas themed and gluten free, so I adapted my mud-cake recipe to include some Christmas flavours. The result was a super moist cake that works brilliantly as a warm dessert served with ice cream or custard and a hearty cake for your Christmas celebrations. If you don’t need it gluten free then substitute regular flour. For the dessert cake I slightly undercook it so it is still fudge and moist inside. Enjoy”
Ingredients
- 375g dark chocolate
- 250g butter
- 600ml water (or red wine)
- 300g almond meal
- 200g gluten free self raising flour
- 400g dark sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 150 chopped walnuts or almonds
- 5 eggs
- 1kg Christmas mince (Recipe on “Christmas Mince Pies” post)
- Place chocolate, butter and water (or red wine) in a saucepan and bring to a medium heat, stirring occasionally until all ingredients are melted and combined. Allow to cool.
- Combine in a mixing bowl the almond meal, GF flour, sugar and spices.
- Beat the eggs and mix into the cooled chocolate mixture.
- Add the Christmas mince to the chocolate mixture and stir through.
- Pour the chocolate mixture and the nuts into the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
- Pour into a large flat lined dish or several smaller ones. I use one that is 35cm by 24cm. If you try to use a traditional cake pan it will take ages to cook and burn around the edges. You want the cake to be about 4cm tall (It won’t rise much at all)
- Bake in a 180 degree C oven for 45 minutes or until just set. As long as there’s no movement in the cake when you move it and a skewer comes out relatively clean it should be fine.
- Allow to cool in the pan in the fridge before turning out and cutting.