Life by chocolate cake (LEON)

I have made no secret of the fact that I love to bake, I find the whole process very therapeutic, however it may come as a surprise to most that I do not have a sweet tooth, not at all in fact, I would rather have bread and cheese than dessert. Because of my inability to love all things sugar I do often struggle to come up with ideas for desserts to serve my guests. Every woman needs a quick and easy go to dessert and although I am often tinkling about with most recipes, this is one of my go to recipes that I think is totally faultless. I found myself making this recipe on almost a weekly basis for my then very pregnant friend who had huge cravings for cake, and despite having a very tiny and demanding baby of my own I needed a quick fix solution, Life by Chocolate cake from the Leon Baking a puddings cook book is the easiest show stopper, so chocolaty it should be illegal. 

You will need:

5 large free range eggs

200g of soft light brown sugar

100ml of instant espresso

350g 70% cocoa solids dark chocolate

250g unsalted butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

a pinch of sea salt.

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees c and butter and line a 23cm cake tin that is not loose bottomed. Beat the eggs and 100g of the sugar until it is voluminous and creates a ribboning effect. In a saucepan dissolve the remaining sugar with the vanilla and coffee, then stir in the chocolate pieces and butter until everything is melted.In a steady stream pour the chocolate in the eggs and fold in until just combined. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and then place the cake tin into a deep roasting pan and fill the roasting pan with hot water from the kettle, enough so that it almost comes up to the top of the cake tin. Bake the cake  in the oven for 30-35 mins. Allow to cool thoroughly before serving, even overnight in the fridge.

It lasted 15 minutes!!!