Chocolate Truffle Cake with Salted Caramel (gluten free)

This is a great standby recipe as it freezes perfectly. At the restaurant we have serve it in many different guises with coffee soil, candied fennel and spiced orange ice cream and at the moment with the salted caramel, sesame tuille and brown butter ice cream. We have a dish in development at the moment: as we are in the middle of our Merlot crush, Karl one of our winemakers, suggested that we use some of the fresh merlot juice, with added tannins to make as a sorbet or a jelly to serve with the chocolate truffle cake. He suggested the tannic, sweetened merlot would be similar to red banyuls normally matched with chocolate. This is not the first time we have collaborated with the winery to make a dish. The chardonnay juice from the 2008 crush was used to garnish a dish of Smoked eel, migas, apple, and ajo blanco, a twist on the traditional grapes normally used to garnish ajo blanco.

(Serves 8)

Ingredients

• 200g butter
• 200g 70% cocoa chocolate
• 200g castor sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 vanilla pod
• 1 375g tin of condensed milk

Method

Pre heat oven to150°C.
Melt butter, chocolate and sugar in a bowl over lightly simmering water.
Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod and add them to the eggs before whipping.
Whisk the eggs in a food mixer for 15 minutes until light and fluffy.
Fold the eggs into the chocolate mixture and pour into a lined, square 15cm cake tin.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until still slightly wobbly in the centre.
Cool and chill in the fridge, in the cake tin before portioning.
Place the tin of condensed milk in a pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for three hours. Cool the tin to room temperature and spoon out the caramel and mix with ½ a teaspoon of salt. Serve with crème fraiche or vanilla ice cream.

John Hawkesby’s wine suggestion

Wishart 'Camaraderie' Dessert Merlot
Banfi Rosa Regale 2006