2nd March 2026

Back to reality after an absolutely lovely weekend away.

My baby was a bit sad so I thought what better way to make him smile than to send him back to uni with a cake.  He loves chocolate and reading through the chocolate cakes in Nigel’s book, I thought this one was very much everything he loves.  I can say, the inside was so mousselike, really light and airy and absolutely gorgeous.  I took a slice out and sent the rest off with Matt - who finished it in record time from what I can gather.  Rhona thought it was a tad sweet.

In terms of the recipe and how it worked out.  I used a 20cm cake tin.  I used a fairly strong espresso shot rather than just coffee.  I bought chocolate last week and discovered as I went to make said cake that some of it had vanished so I used 110g dark and made the rest up in milk choc (possibly why Rhona thought it was too sweet), otherwise I stuck to the ingredients.

As for the method, I always melt my chocolate in the microwave as for me it works out so much better than the bain marie method so I put the chocolate, butter and espresso in a bowl and melted it for 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds.  I otherwise followed the method.  As a cake it was very easy and was in the oven in 10 minutes which is always a winner.

The recipe does not say what the cake should look and feel like when it has baked which was a little annoying. My oven can be difficult and often takes longer to bake things so, when I looked in I thought maybe it needed extra time but the wobble reminded me of when I cook brownies so I took it out.  It sank a bit initially and I was a little worried. 

I followed a fellow member of the cookbook clubs advice and let it cool completely overnight. I thought it might be a touch undercooked when I went to bed but it set beautifully overnight.  The inside did look and taste just like a mousse.

Next time I will try with the correct chocolate to compare.