Gateau St George

Serves: 8

Preparation: 40 minutes + cooling | Baking time: 40–50 minutes

Ingredients

  • Génoise sponge cake mixture (made from 125g Caster Sugar, 100g Butter and 100g Plain Flour)
  • 110g Dark Chocolate (70% Cocoa solids), broken into pieces
  • 3 Eggs, separated
  • 60g Butter, softened
  • 2 tsps Rum
  • 110g Caster Sugar, Cocoa Powder, to decorate

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.

Grease a 20–23 cm sponge flan tin, base line with a round of non-stick baking parchment and grease again.

Make and pour the Génoise cake mixture into the tin and bake for 20–30 minutes until the cake starts to shrink away from the sides of the tin. Turn out and leave to cool.

Place the chocolate and 1 tablespoon of water in a bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water.

When completely melted, remove from the heat.

Beat the egg yolks, one at a time, into the chocolate with the butter and the rum.

When the butter is completely absorbed, pour the mixture on to the sponge. Leave to set.

Preheat the oven to 160°C/Gas Mark 3.

Whisk the egg whites in a large clean bowl until stiff peaks form.

Add the caster sugar a teaspoon at a time, whisking until all the sugar has been absorbed and you have a glossy meringue.

Swirl the meringue on to the set chocolate and cook until set on the outside, about 20 minutes. It need not dry out, but must be firmly set on top.

Serve cold, decorated with a sprinkling of cocoa powder.

Tips

A wooden spoon is too thick for any folding operation. The thin edge of a metal spoon cuts through mixtures without breaking down the airy texture.

To save time, or if you don't have a sponge flan tin, make this with a ready-bought sponge flan ring.

Instead of adding the rum to the chocolate mixture, try drizzling up to 2 tablespoons over the sponge flan.

This recipe is from Vintage Tea Time published by Simon & Schuster in 2012.