Macadamia fudge cake

[Dan Lepard]

Macadamia fudge cake

Dizzyingly rich and sweet with an intense chocolate flavour, this fudge cake is best made the day before and served cold in small slices with a little crème fraîche or pouring cream.

400g macadamia nuts
475g caster sugar
7 egg whites
1 tbsp vanilla extract
50ml dark rum
500g dark chocolate
200g unsalted butter
75g plain flour

Line the inside of a 25cm round spring-form cake tin with a large sheet of foil pressed carefully into the corners with your knuckles, and heat the oven to 170°C/fan 150°C/335°F/gas 3. Wash and dry the nuts, if they're salted, then grind finely in a food processor with half the sugar and about half the egg whites. Spoon this into a bowl and stir in the vanilla and rum. Whisk the whites until stiff then beat in the remaining sugar, a little at a time, to a soft meringue and leave to one side. Melt the butter and the chocolate then fold this through the nut mixture. Next sift the flour over the top and fold this through gently. Finally fold in the meringue until barely combined. Spoon the mixture into the tin and bake for 45 - 55 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave overnight until cold before removing the foil to serve.

[Sue-L]

I don't have a large food processor, but I do have one of those mini-processors with a small bowl chopper which I think will grind nuts adequately. Would I get the same result if I processed the nuts and sugar in small batches, then mixed in half the egg whites by hand?

[JonQ]

Hi Dan

I made this last night, and after 55 minutes it was biscuity on the top but seemed very squidgy inside. I wasn't sure how to tell if it was done or not. I gave it another 20 minutes then took it out of the oven.

Tried it this morning, and it's lovely. A very moist dark crumbly centre with a chewy brownie like side and biscuity top.

Should I have just taken it out after the 55 minutes and it would have been fine, and even more squidgy in the middle ?

[Dan Lepard]

Hi Jon,
"Probably" is all I can say. On fudge cake / brownie recipes like this I try to err very slightly on the side of under-baked, as I find I'm more likely to get emails/messages complaining if it's over cooked than if it's slightly undercooked. I prefer it cooked a bit more, like you by the sounds of it, but there is some latitude in cakes like this.
So that's a "definitely maybe" from me!
Dan

[barafundle]

Hi

I really want to make this cake as a christmas dessert but I have two questions

1. Dark chocolate is not specified as 70% cocoa solids - obviously using 500g is going to work out quite expensive using 70% chocolate - would it still work OK using a cheaper substitute such as Bournville.

2. Would the recipe suffer if I used gluten free flour? I can see there is an air element going on with the egg white but I wondered whether the gluten in the flour has any real effect on the cake as it doesn't sound like it is going to rise much as it is fudgy

Would really appreciate hearing your thoughts

Many thanks

[Dan Lepard]

Absolutely, use cheaper chocolate as there are so many other ingredients the flavour of the expensive stuff will get lost. Gluten-free flour should be fine.

One last point. I think it can be confusing to judge when it's ready according to mine/your taste. Just remember that if you make it the day before, even if you slightly under bake it, the following day it will set and become firmer. So it is usually ok if the skewer comes out a bit sticky.

Dan

[barafundle]

thanks Dan

[Dan Lepard]

I wondered if it might be too sweet and rich at Christmas? If you wanted something lighter but with a deep chocolate flavour, and gluten-free, you could try this one:
http://www.danlepard.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1679
If the oats are a problem you could replace them with gluten-free flour.
Dan

[barafundle]

thanks for the suggestion will try it