Celebration Mud Cake by Emma Knowles

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 150C and line a 22cm-dimater springform cake tin with baking paper.
2. To make your Mud cake, combine chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and place it over a saucepan of gently simmering water, stirring every now and again until you have a smooth glossy mixture. Remove from the heat.
3. While the chocolate melts, whisk your yolks, brown sugar, vanilla and a pinch of salt in an electric mixer for about 5 minutes until thick and pale. Fold into your chocolate mixture to combine, then sieve over the flour, cocoa and baking powder. Add hazelnut meal and fold it all together to combine. Spoon into your prepared tin and smooth the top.
4. To make your chocolate meringue, whisk egg whites, sugars and a pinch of salt in the clean bowl of an electric mixer until glossy firm peaks form. Fold in cocoa and hazelnut meal to just combine then spread on top of the mud cake mixture. Bake until the meringue is crisp – your cake will be perfectly fudgy beneath – about 1 ¼ hours. Cool to room temperature and remove the sides of the tin.
5. For raspberry cream, crush raspberries in a small bowl with orange juice and 1 tbsp brown sugar. Whisk sour cream, thickened cream, vanilla and remaining brown sugar in a large bowl until billowy peaks form. Fold in the crushed raspberries to from a ripple.
6. Spoon raspberry cream into big billowy clouds on top of your cake. Top with raspberries and grated chocolate and serve.

Note: use the best chocolate you can manage (please skip the cooking chocolate) for best results.