Chocolate cake with vin santo raisins

Chocolate cake with vin santo raisins

By Matt Preston
Selected by “Nerd Consultant” Calvin

Matt Preston makes fantastic cookbooks and is a judge on Masterchef Australia and I would highly recommend checking out his work along with the other judges because they are fantastic at what they do and I may highlight them in the months to come. I do this cake a lot for the monthly support group mainly because not only does it taste great it’s also great for people with gluten allergies, but I change the original recipe due to the fact that prunes aren’t to everyone’s taste so for the original recipe get his book Fast, Fresh and Unbelievably Delicious on page 239. Also don’t feel you need Vin Santo because it can be quite expensive and a good dessert wine will work.

Ingredients

• Cocoa powder for dusting (get at least 70% cocoa)
• 200g raisins
• 200ml vin santo
• 340g dark chocolate (get at least 70% cocoa)
• 170g unsalted butter plus extra for greasing
• 80g sugar 
• 6 large eggs separated

Method

1. Pre heat an oven to 170C and grease a cake tin with some butter and sprinkle some cocoa powder
2. Soak the raisins in the Vin Santo in a bowl and leave them while you make the cake mix
3. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water
4. Add half the sugar to the bowl and mix in then remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly
5. Then add the egg yolks and stir until combined
6. Separate the raisins from the raisins from the Vin Santo and add to the chocolate mix and stir till combined
7. Using an electric mixer whisk the egg white till they begin to hold soft peaks then add rest of sugar then continue to whisk until they are stiff
8. Fold in one third of the egg whites to the chocolate mix then fold in the rest of the whites
9. Place the chocolate mix into the cake tin and bake it for 25-35 minutes I say that because last time I did it took me a bit longer than I thought .The skewer trick works well here though make sure you put the skewer through the centre as that’s the best location to give an indicator of how well cooked it is.