Love this cake, and I know Jo and Lawrence similarly love cakes involving ground almonds and chocolate, so it’s surely a good choice to make for the day after Jo’s birthday.

It’s probably not a proper Sachertorte - that apparently has two layers of cake, filled with apricot jam. Instead, it’s a tried and tested recipe from the marvellous Unwrapped: Green & Black’s Chocolate Recipes, which the book credits to someone called Lorna Wing.

Grease and line a 23cm springform tin.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Then, melt 200g dark choc (proper dark choc that is – with at least 60% cocoa solids) in a bowl over simmering water.
Meanwhile, separate 5 eggs, then beat the the yolks, along with 1 more whole egg, with 310g granulated sugar, until thick and creamy. (I used an electric hand-held.)
In another bowl, whisk the whites to stiff peaks.
Add 150g ground almonds, 1.5 t of ground coffee and the melted chocolate to the egg yolk/sugar mix, and combine.
Next comes the tricky bit – you have to fold the whites into that mixture, to give it some lightness and life. The egg/almond/choc mix is pretty heavy, so I add a tablespoon of the whites initially to lighten it up a bit, stirring them in well, then gently fold in the rest of the egg white.

Bake for 1 hour. Check – carefully – at 40 mins, and if it looks like the top is going to burn, cover with foil.

Cool on a rack, with the ring of the tin removed, but the base left in place.

When it’s fully cooled, brush all over with melted and strained apricot jam (abou 5T), then spread with icing made from 100g chocolate, melted as before, with 40g unsalted butter beaten into it.

Thanks to Jo for the pic.

My sister-in-law Riette once made us a delicious South African dessert, which was very much like a steamed pudding even though it was baked in the oven. I then discovered this recipe in my Green & Black’s cookbook – another South African dish with that wonderful steamed pud texture to it, made ‘tipsy’ by the boozy syrup. I made it at Christmas as an alternative to the conventional pudding and in honour of Riette and her homeland! It’s best served with custard we think. The G&B book has its own twist (mainly just have got it into the book if you ask me – you could easily leave out the chocolate). I would never have though this kind of dish would come out of South Africa as I imagine it to be roasting hot all the time (obviously not true), but apparently they’re very into their hot dinners!

Batter:
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
240g dates, stoned (or 250g with stones), chopped
125ml/ 4fl oz boiling water
40g unsalted butter
200g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
25g preserved ginger, chopped
100g glace (yuk) or dried cherries – definitely dried!
40g walnuts, chopped (last time I used pecans)
50g dark chocolate, minimum 60 percent cocoa solids

Syrup:
75g granulated sugar
200ml water
salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
25g unsalted butter
60ml brandy or dark rum

Oven and 180 degrees, grease a 23cm flan or pie dish well with butter (needs to be quite deep).

Pat the bicarb over the dates and pour over the boiling water, stir and leave to cool. Cream the butter, sugar together and add the eggs, beat thoroughly. Sift together the flour, bp and salt and stir into the creamed mixture.
Add the date mixture, cherries and nuts. Spoon the mixture into the pie dish and bake for 35 minutes. Place the chocolate in the freezer. Prepare the syrup – you need to pour this over the tart as soon as you get it out of the oven. Boil all the ingredients for the syrup together for about 6 minutes until they form a syrup.
Remove the tart from the oven and prick the surface all over with a fork. Immediately pour over the syrup then grate the chocolate over the top. Delicious! Great with custard on a winter evening, or any time really.

Or to give it its full title, “Really quite pleasant & easy-peasy chocolate cake”.

Found this one in my old recipes scrapbook, in my handwriting, but no idea when or where it comes from. Did I make it up? Who knows. Must be quite old though, as the measurements are in those funny medieval measurements so many Brits insist on sticking with.

It calls for 4 large eggs, which I got from pack that consisted of half a dozen double-yolkers. Don’t see that every day eh? Must have been feeding the chooks something good.

8oz / 225g butter
8oz / 225g granulated sugar
4 large eggs
6 1/2 oz / 185g dark choc (strong of course, like 70% plus)
8oz / 225g plain flour
1t baking powder

Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan)
Cream the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs, one at a time. Beat in a bit of the flour if it curdles.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. My original recipe called for a bit of strong coffee too, but only if you fancy it.
Beat the melted choc into the creamed, eggy mixture
Sift in the flour and baking powder, and fold gently to combine.

Bake in a 20cm tin or (it says ‘ere) 2lb loaf tin for 1 hour in an oven.

I iced this one with Chocolate Glaze from Green & Black’s Chocolate Recipes, an essential book for every chocaholic.