After suffering some disastrous attempts at bread-making (Triple Chocolate and Hazelnut bread and a garlic stuffed bread), I decided to cheer myself up by making a cake. My favourite cake/baking book has to be Nigella Lawson’s “How To Be A Domestic Goddess”. I’ve never had a recipe fail from this tome, so (in my nervous state) this boded well.

After some indecision, I decided to make her Chocolate Marsala Cake on the basis that I had some dark chocolate to use up (how odd!), eggs to use up, and plenty of Marsala (which I adore) in the cupboard. Plus, I’ve wanted to make this cake since I bought the book!

After a quick foray to the supermarket for some flour and sugar (I have four types of bread flour, but no self-raising flour!) I was ready to begin. I preheated the oven to 180C and then greased and lined the base and sides of a 23cm springform tin with greaseproof paper and also buttered the paper once the tin was lined. I do hate to leave cake behind on the lining paper when it could be lining my tummy.

I melted together 100g 70% chocolate with 100g unsalted butter. For ease, I just bunged it in the microwave for a couple of mins. Once it was smooth and glossy, I left it to cool whilst I got on with whisking the eggs and sugar. In my largest bowl I combined 175g caster sugar and 4 large eggs. I whisked these together thoroughly until the mixture had more than trippled and was very pale and thick. I could fib and say that I did this all by hand but Dave would reveal my dark secret. I actually used my electric whisk and it took about 5 minutes to whisk up. After all that hard work, I folded in 50g of self-raising flour which I had sifted three times. Nigella tells you to be very careful not to knock out the air when you’re incorporating the flour but I can’t say that I noticed any evidence of air loss and I’ve always been fairly heavy-handed. Once that was done, I poured the chocolate/butter mixture into the bowl and folded that in. I used my largest spoon for this and I have to say that it really helped to stop the chocolate from accumulating at the bottom of the bowl.

Once the cake mixture looked relatively even-coloured, I poured it into my prepared tin and then slid it into the oven to bake for 35 minutes. In a fit of domesticity, I then put all my dirty dishes etc into the dishwasher! I must be getting the hang of this housewife lark…

The cake came out of the oven quite risen and firm on top. After a few minutes it started to sink in the middle. This wasn’t at all traumatic, as Nigella said it would. Bless her. It was evident that the firmness of the cake was only really a crust – it was still deliciously moist and perhaps a little gooey inside. I waited 5 minutes before dribbling 3 tablespoons of Marsala over the top.

After that, I did some more housework and had lunch whilst the cake cooled and absorbed the Marsala. A few hours later, I very carefully peeled the lining papers off and slid it gingerly onto a cake stand. What Nigella didn’t mention is that this is an extremely delicate cake. It’s quite a feat to remove the bottom paper without it breaking in half. Mine bent in half quite dramatically, but I suspect it will survive. Once I’d cleared up all the crumbs that fell off I made the ganache icing (also flavoured with Marsala).

Like the cake, this was very simple. 100ml double cream, 100g 70% chocolate, and 1 tablespoon Marsala in a saucepan. Heat until it melts together. Whisk for a couple of minutes until it thickens slightly and then pour into the sunken centre of the cake. The ganache was very glossy indeed and whilst I didn’t get it perfectly smoothed on top, I think it looks quite fantastic!

As for the taste….. its absolutely awesome! I’m so pleased with how its turned out. Its deliciously squidgy in the middle and you get a definite hit of Marsala (not overwhelming though). Dave has paid me the ultimate compliment by going back for seconds so I’d say that its pretty much the perfect cake.