Chocolate raspberry pudding cake

A gooey, intensely chocolatey cake with raspberries. Undoubtedly, it will boost your endorphins — something we all need this time of year. The cake is wonderfully moist, with a texture somewhere between a pudding and a cake. It’s best served about an hour after baking, as it firms up as it cools. A true chocoholic’s dream!

Ingredients for the chocolate raspberry pudding cake:

• 180 g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 30 g cocoa powder
• 250 g butter
• 1 Tbsp raspberry liqueur
• 95 g caster sugar
• 95 g light muscovado sugar
• 250 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), broken into pieces
• 370 ml water
• 2 tsp instant coffee granules
• 2 large eggs
• 250 g raspberries

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Place the butter, raspberry liqueur, caster sugar, muscovado sugar, chocolate, coffee granules and water in a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring, until everything has melted and combined into a smooth, glossy chocolate sauce. Remove from the heat and set aside for a few minutes.

Stir the flour and cocoa powder into the pan and beat until smooth and glossy, then gradually beat in the eggs. The mixture will be quite runny – don’t worry or add extra flour; the chocolate will set as it bakes and cools.

Line the base of a 23 cm round cake tin with baking paper. Pour half of the batter into the tin. As the batter is very liquid, make sure the tin is well sealed to prevent leaking. Scatter the raspberries evenly over the batter, then pour the remaining batter on top to cover them.

Bake at 170°C for about 40–45 minutes. Do not test the cake with a skewer – in this case it isn’t reliable. The cake will rise and crack as it bakes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool; as it cools slightly, the cracks will settle. After about an hour, dust with icing sugar and decorate with raspberries.

To finish:

• raspberries, for decoration
• icing sugar, for dusting

Enjoy!

Recipe source: “How to eat” Nigella Lawson.