Chocolate Strawberry Chunk Cake
Serves 8
If you love chocolate. If you love strawberries. If you love cake. Then you’re going to love this recipe. I’ve combined three of my favorite ingredients (and hopefully yours) into one delicious mouthwatering dessert.
When I make a recipe, I try and always remember a good time in my life, either from traveling, being around friends or, better still, surrounded by family. The three ingredients in this recipe remind me of my mother. She baked the best cakes. She normally served them every Sunday for afternoon tea, along with triangle sandwiches, ham and peas, and pudding filled stottie cakes. My father grew the best tasting strawberries ever, which were eaten straight off the stem or served with freshly baked scones and clotted cream.
As kids, we loved Cadbury chocolate. We didn’t get it often, normally birthdays or special occasions. Unwrapping the bar was always a treat. The first thing you smelled was the intoxicating aroma of chocolate. You followed that with a bite of that amazing texture and taste that is a gift from Mother Nature. There is really nothing like chocolate. Even now it brings back memories of Christmas for me, as there was always a bar of chocolate in my Christmas stocking. To this day, my boys get a bar of chocolate, an orange and apple in their Christmas stocking. It might not mean a great deal to them, but it always puts a smile on my face as it brings back so many childhood memories. Give this recipe a try, and see if it brings back any good times for you.
Ingredients:
4 eggs (free range if possible)
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup local honey (Coddle Creek Farms)
1 cup ground almonds
1 cup white whole wheat flour
½ unwaxed lemon, zest only
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
5oz dark chocolate (minimum 70 percent cocoa solids), broken into large chunks
2 cups strawberries, hulled and halved
How to make:
Pre-heat oven to 360◦F. Grease and line a nine-inch cake tin. Whisk the eggs with an electric mixer on high speed for four to five minutes, until the eggs are thick and creamy.
Pour the melted butter into a large bowl and stir in the honey, almonds, flour, lemon zest, vanilla, baking powder and salt. Gently fold in the whipped eggs until just combined.
Pour half of the mixture into the cake tin. Sprinkle half the chocolate chunks and half of the strawberries on top and cover with the remaining cake mixture. Top with the remaining chocolate chunks and strawberries.
Place the cake into the oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes. The cake should feel firm and spring back to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes. Remove from the tin and allow to cool completely. Decorate with melted chocolate, if you wish, or serve as is. Enjoy!