mondomulia

In October I went to Wales for a long weekend with my husband and two friends and stayed in a charming cottage in Brecon Beacons National Park. On arriving at the cottage I discovered a beautiful cast iron oven in the kitchen! As it was going to be our friend's birthday the next day, I decided to bake a cake.

I had to first go into town and buy a cake pan. To convince my husband that I needed a new baking dish, I chose one I didn't have at home: an Angel Food Cake dish. I had never made this cake before and I was curious to try it!

I shortlisted a few recipes online and eventually chose this chocolate one by Rachel Khoo (from the Evening Standard website). This cake is dense and spongy, without being too rich. We loved eating it for breakfast dipped in our caffelatte!

An idea to use up the leftover egg yolks: Quindim, a delicious and easy to make Brazilian sweet!

Ingredients

• 12 egg whites
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 140g plain flour
• 140g icing sugar
• 40g cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Icing sugar, to dust

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 160ºC. In an electric mixer, whip the egg whites until light and frothy, gradually adding the sugar and cream of tartar bit by bit until you create soft peaks.

Sift the flour, icing sugar, cocoa and salt into a separate bowl. Add about one third of the dry ingredients to the egg white mix and fold in thoroughly. Repeat twice more, until the mixture is smooth and all the ingredients have been incorporated. Pour into the tin.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. The mixture will puff up so, once the cake is removed from the oven, use a bread knife to trim the base level. Run a knife around the edges and centre of the tin and turn the cake out on to a cooling rack.