TOULS’ CHOCOLATE, DATE + ALMOND CAKE – NEW and IMPROVED 2

You may remember this recipe from “Phoodie – The Early Days”…..

Touls’ Choc / Date / Almond cake is one of my all time FAVOURITE things to bake! Adored by one and all and soooooooo super easy!

Anyway, after an early morning airport run, which involved waving bye-bye (for now, see you guys in 10 weeks!!!) to some much loved family, I knew that baking this would make me feel one million times better!

I have modified the previously posted recipe to make this already phenomenally DE-LISH-US cake even DE-LISH-US-ERRRR!

ENJOY!

INGREDIENTS

400g Good Quality Dark Chocolate – hand cut into small chips

300g Dates – fresh ones are preferable but not necessary, can get some nice dried ones but not rock hard dry, make sure pips are removed and then dice into small chunks

400g Almonds – slivered or chips, not whole or big pieces  – obviously not salted – roast in oven until golden, then allow to cool

6 egg whites

250 grams caster sugar

METHOD

Preheat oven to 170 deg cel.

Prepare your chocolate, dates and almonds as above and shove into a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add sugar whilst beating more, until stiff peaks form. This is basically a meringue mix.

Fold (this means gently so that the meringue mix stays fluffy) SOME of the meringue mix into the chocolate / date / almond mix to loosen it…….gently gently fold through.

Then, fold the choc / date / almond / bit of meringue mix back into the remainder of the meringue mix – fold together gently – don’t stir or mix too much as the meringue will lose all of its air. YOU DON’T WANT THIS.

Once mixture is evenly distributed pour into 23-25cm round spring form cake tin. Shove it into the hot oven and cook for abouuuuut 1 hour. When done it will look like a crunchy meringue on top and should be warm and chewy in the middle.

Once cooled, shower in Icing sugar, then serve with double cream and rasberry coulis OR just by itself – it tastes AMAZING served straight away i.e 1 hour after made, but it also lasts forever i.e. about a week in an air tight container.

THIS IS ONE OF THE YUMMIEST CAKES IN THE WORLD – EVERYONE THINKS IT IS DELICIOUS – KIDS, ADULTS, TRADESMEN.