members recipes

Ingredients
1 lemon
225g read-to-eat dried apricots
1 cinnamon stick
6 medium eggs
200g ground almonds
25g sifted cocoa
200g golden caster sugar
1 tsp sifted baking powder

Icing :
200g dark chocolate , about 50 per cent cocoa solids
200g sour cream

Method
Grate the zest from the lemon and squeeze the juice .

Place the apricots , cinnamon stick , lemon zest and juice and 200ml water in a small saucepan .

Bring to the boil , then simmer over a low heat for about 20 minutes , watching carefully to make sure the mixture doesn\'t catch , until the apricots are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed .

Remove the cinnamon stick and purée the apricots in a food processor .

Transfer the purée to a bowl and leave to cool .

Preheat the oven to 190C / 170C fan/375F/gas 5 .

Butter a 20cm loose-bottom cake tin , 9cm deep .

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl , then fold in the ground almonds , cocoa , sugar , baking powder and the apricot purée .

Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and smooth the surface .

Bake for 40 - 50 minutes until deep gold on top .

A skewer inserted into the centre should come out with just a few moist crumbs clinging . Run a knife around the edge and leave the cake to cool . Once cooled , ease it out of the tin .

Break the chocolate into pieces and melt gently in a bowl set over a pan containing a little simmering water .

Remove the melted chocolate from the heat and whisk in the sour cream .

Using a palette knife , coat the cake with the icing as smoothly as possible . Set aside on a plate or cake stand in a cool place to set for a few hours . The cake should keep in an airtight container in a cool cupboard for several days .