Gateau Lawrence

Recipe from The French Kitchen by Fran Warde and Joanne Harris Published by DoubleDay Photo by Debi Treloar

Serves 6
 
For the cake
180g dark chocolate
175g butter, soft
125g unrefined sugar
200g ground almonds
4 eggs, separated
 
for the icing
100g dark chocolate
50g butter
 
1. Heat the oven to 150C. Line a 25cm push-up-bottom or spring form cake tin with baking parchment. Break the chocolate into pieces and melt in a bain-marie.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar using an electric whisk, add the ground almonds, eggs yolks and melted chocolate and beat until evenly blended.
3. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, fold into the cake mixture quickly using a large metal spoon until blended.
4. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 -35 minutes. A light crust will form onto and the middle should be a little squishy. Leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin.
5. For the icing, melt the chocolate and butter in a bain-marie and mix well then pour over the cake and leave to set.
 

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