Christmas x 2 and a deliciously wicked recipe

We have two Christmas celebrations at Number 10 each year.

The first is the Saturday before Christmas Day when Monts' girls and their husbands and all the kids arrive to have a nice meal and exchange gifts

I call it the "Festival of Meat" because I seem to cook just about every beast there is... all the food groups are represented.

This year I did my usual glazed ham, a rack of beef and roast chicken, with seafood on the side, as well as vegetables and salad.

Dessert this year was:  cheese cake and fresh raspberries with home made ice-cream and a rich chocolate mousse cake that can be frozen!.

Now, by all accounts, this recipe shouldn't work, or at least not work as well as it does.

It's simple. So simple that if you can turn on your oven, work the microwave and open the door to the freezer then you can make this rich dessert.

A friend at work passed it on to me. I'm so glad he did.

These are the things you need

20cm round cake tin

450 grams dark chocolate
4 eggs
145 grams unsalted butter
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon plain flour

First off, line the cake tin with baking paper (do not grease it) or silver foil, with enough hanging over so it can cover it later. Just note, this will not work out as well if you use a larger cake tin. A smaller one will be OK, but using a larger one means you'll end up with a rather flat and solid cake.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Melt the butter and choclate together in a bowl in the microwave then let cool to room temperature.
Using an electric mixer, beat together the eggs and sugar until pale and creamy and fluffy
Fold in the sifted flour, then the room temperature chocolate mixture
Pour into the lined cake tin and put in a 180 degree oven for 20 minutes until the top cracks and it's still a bit wobbly. Do not leave this in the oven thinking it's undercooked because it's wobbly. It's not.

Let it cool in the tin then cover it with the foil and put it in the freezer overnight

To serve the next day, take it out of the freezer at least an hour before serving, then invert it onto a plate, cover the top with berries and serve with cream or ice-cream. Or both!

Now, it's pretty darn rich so you only need a small sliver on your plate, but you can always have more than one. That's what I did.
Perfect

What's also good about this dessert is that it's the perfect thing to take to a party because it travels so well!

You can make it the night/day before, pop it in the freezer and while you're driving to your celebrations it's thawing out in the back of the car.

Told you it was easy