Ingredients
125g unsalted butter
½ cup caster sugar + 2 tablespoons caster sugar
115g dark chocolate – broken into pieces
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 Tbsp plain flour
½ cup almond meal
Salt
Icing Sugar – to serve

Preparation
Line the bottom of a 20-22 cm cake tin with baking paper or with a cake tin liner. Grease the sides of the tin generously. Don’t skip this step as your cake won’t come out of the tin if it is not well prepared.

Pre-heat the oven to 165C. Place a rack in the middle of the oven.

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Place the chocolate into a glass bowl and either place over a simmering saucepan of warm water – and gently melt the chocolate. Or put the chocolate into a microwave safe bowl and heat for 15 seconds and stir, 15 more seconds and stir, until the chocolate is melted.

Add the melted chocolate to the butter and sugar mixture and mix until combined.

Separate the eggs (keeping the egg whites in a separate bowl) and add the 4 yolks one at a time to the chocolate mixture. Then add the flour, almond meal and vanilla and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until the mixture reaches soft peaks.
Add the 2 tablespoons of sugar and continue beating until the mixture forms stiff peaks.

Using a large spoon or spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate/almond mixture.

Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin and flatten the top.
Bake for approx. 25 minutes or when a skewer is inserted into the middle of the cake, comes out clean.

Leave the cake in the tin for 5 minutes and then invert onto a serving plate or cake stand.

Dust with icing sugar to serve. Lovely with some berries and cream.