Recipe | Chocolate & Ginger Torte

Friday's generally evoke a mixture of emotions here at LJC HQ. There's the excitement of the work week finally coming to an end and then there's the exhaustion that comes with the work we coming to an end.  That's why we feel that Friday's need to be celebrated and the weekend has to be welcomed correctly. What's the appropriate way to do that we hear you ask? Well every Friday night needs a dessert and every dessert needs a little chocolate, which leads us onto today's recipe...

Chocolate & Ginger Torte

Serves 8-10 | To prepare 25mins| To cook 1hr 10 mins

Ingredients 

• 250g unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for the tin
• cocoa, for dusting
• 350g dark chocolate, chopped
• 2 tbsp Stone's Ginger wine
• 140g caster sugar
• 100g light muscovado sugar
• 5 eggs, separated
• 75g ground almonds
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 heaped tbsp ginger preserve

For Ganache Icing

• 140g dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 150ml double cream
• 25g unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp Stone's Ginger wine

Method

• Heat oven to 170C/150C fan/gas 3-4. Butter and line a 23cm round spring form tin with a disc of buttered baking parchment. Lightly dust the inside of the tin with cocoa and tip out excess.
• Put the chocolate and butter into a medium-size heatproof bowl, add the ginger wine and set the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir occasionally until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.
• Tip both the sugars into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer and add the egg yolks. Whisk until pale and light. Pour the melted chocolate and butter into the yolks and stir until smooth. With another large, spotlessly clean bowl and whisk, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they just hold a stiff peak.
• Sift the almonds and ginger into the chocolate mixture and fold in using a large metal spoon. Add one-third of the egg whites and stir in to loosen the mixture. Fold in the remaining egg whites until combined.
• Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin and gently spread level using a palette knife. Gently warm the ginger preserve until it’s just spreadable and carefully spoon onto the cake in small dollops. Spoon over the remaining chocolate mixture, spread level and bake just below the middle shelf of the oven for 50 mins-1 hr until a wooden skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out with a moist crumb attached. Allow the cake to cool in the tin and don’t be dismayed if the top sinks and cracks.
• To make the ganache icing, tip the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Then add the cream, butter and ginger wine. Set the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and stir until melted and velvety smooth. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
• Carefully run a palette knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it, then put on a serving plate. Spread the ganache over the top, and leave to set before serving.

Enjoy!

Happy Friday everyone!

LJC

x

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