Mont Blanc Cake

I am still in the south of France trying to come up with new cakes to impress my family. I always talk about us being chocoholics and they are finally complaining that there is a lack of chocolate cake in the house. This is gluten-free and uses the wonderful, nutty chestnut flour for an insane depth of flavour. I like to think of it as a mont blanc and if you want to add some creme fraiche or vanilla ice cream for a snowy feel then go for it. It is perfect for a dessert at a dinner party. Bon appetit!

Ingredients:

Serves 10

For the cake

200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

180g unrefined caster sugar

6 medium eggs, separated

200g unsalted butter, diced

200g chestnut flour

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp cocoa powder

For the chestnut cream

280ml coconut cream

200g chestnut puree

Creme fraiche optional for serving

How to Make Your Cake

Preheat oven to 170 degrees and line a 10 inch cake tin with butter and baking parchment. Place the coconut cream into the fridge for 1-2 hours to allow the cream and water to separate.

Begin with the cake and in a mixer add the egg yolks and half the sugar and whisk until pale for about 5 minutes. Melt chocolate and butter in a bains-Marie until completely melted and then remove from the heat and mix in the egg and sugar mix. Then stir in the chestnut flour, cocoa powder, vanilla extract until everything is well combined. Next whip up the egg whites to form stuff peaks and then add a spoonful of sugar at a time until all is incorporated. Do not stop mixing until all is added and then gently fold in the whites a third at a time into the chocolate batter. Now scrape everything into the prepared tin and place into the oven for 20mins minutes until the top has crisped up a little but it will still be very gooey in the middle. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack before carefully removing and placing onto a serving plate.

While the cake is baking in the oven you can make the chestnut cream. Remove the chilled coconut cream from the fridge and scrape only the cream (not the water) into a mixer along with the chestnut puree. Whisk at a high speed for about 5 minutes until the cream has thickened up and looks like whipped cream. Carefully scrape into a bowl and store in the fridge until just before serving and then either ice over the cake or place in a bowl for serving.

Store cake in the fridge and it will keep for about 2 days.