Coffee and Almond cake

This Coffee and Almond cake is for proper coffee lovers – the bitter espresso teams up with the sweet sharpness of the dark chocolate to create a really robust flavour. Should you find yourself without the means to add real espresso to your cake, brew a small filter in a cafetière that’s 3-4 times stronger than usual. This cake happens to be gluten free – but you wouldn’t know!



Ingredients:

200g almonds

200g dark chocolate

175g unsalted butter

70g caster sugar

4 eggs (separated)

20ml of your favourite Stokes coffee made as a strong espresso

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees and grease and line a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin.

Blitz the almonds in a food processor until just finely ground – don’t over-pulse as they will start to become sticky.

Melt the dark chocolate and butter together with your Stokes espresso in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water and stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar until thick and pale – about 5 minutes with a handheld electric whisk.

Fold the chocolate mixture in to the egg and sugar mixture and then fold in the ground nuts.

In a separate clean bowl, whisk the egg whites in to stiff peaks and then fold this in to the cake mixture.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. If you prefer a gooey chocolate pudding then feel free to slightly undercook it.