Chocolate love cake with cherries and booze

Name: Chocolate love cake with cherries and booze
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 2-6
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons cocoa powder; 100 g butter softened; 100 g caster sugar; 1 free-range egg; 100 g self-raising flour; ½ teaspoon baking powder; ½ tin black cherries drained; 2 tablespoons hazelnuts chopped; 1 tablespoon butter; 142 ml single cream; 75 g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) broken into small pieces; 1 splash brandy, rum, Amaretto or Baileys

A super-special Valentine's Day dessert

“I have a lot of love for this chocolate cake – it's not too difficult and totally delicious ”

Serves 2-6

Cooks In35 minutes

DifficultySuper easy

Chocolate, Dinner for two, Dinner Party, Party food

Nutrition per serving

Calories

425

21%
Fat

27.6g

39%
Saturates

15.5g

78%
Protein

5.5g

11%
Carbs

38.4g

15%
Sugars

25.1g

28%
Salt

0.4g

7%
Fibre

2.4g

-

Of an adult's reference intake

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Ingredients

For the cake
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
100 g butter , softened
100 g caster sugar
1 free-range egg
100 g self-raising flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ tin black cherries , drained
2 tablespoons hazelnuts , chopped
For the chocolate sauce
1 tablespoon butter
142 ml single cream
75 g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) , broken into small pieces
1 splash brandy, rum, Amaretto or Baileys

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Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4 and grease a small ovenproof dish (23-25cm) with butter.
Mix the cocoa powder with a few tablespoons of boiling water and stir until the mixture is lovely and smooth.
In another bowl or a food mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy and light, then add the cocoa mixture, egg, flour and baking powder. Mix it all together really well, pour into your ovenproof dish and sprinkle the cherries and hazelnuts on top before putting in the oven for about 25 minutes.
While your cake is baking, make your chocolate sauce. Place the butter in a small pan with the cream and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and add your chocolate pieces to the pan. Give it all a good stir and then leave it for 5 minutes so that the hot cream can melt the chocolate. Add a splash of your desired alcohol and stir until thoroughly combined.
To check if your cake is ready, give it a bit of a jiggle and if it doesn’t wobble too much then it’s done, if not, give it a few more minutes in the oven.
Once it’s ready, pour your warm chocolate sauce all over the cake and either share it right from the dish or serve it up on small plates with vanilla ice cream or double cream. Delicious!