SUPER RICH CHOCOLATE CAKE

Whenever I am in Zürich, we have a big get together with my old school friends.
It is always such a happy and funny occasion, talking about the past, present and future. They are all doing really interesting things and we really get inspiration from each other.
For this occasion I have created a ‘fusion’ cake , taking my Swiss heritage and mixing it with my passion for Persia ( my new book on Persia, ‘ Pardiz’ will come out end of October!!!)

• butter a 24 cm spring form turn oven to 180˚

• 200 gr good quality Swiss chocolate ( I used 100gr 72% and 100gr 55% cocoa)
• 200 gr unsalted butter
• 80 gr coconut sugar
• 6 organic eggs, separated
• 200 gr ground almonds
• 12 cardamom pods de podded and ground with pestle and mortar
• 2-3 tablespoons good quality rosewater
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• melt the chocolate in a little pan
• in your mixer, beat the butter,ground cardamom and sugar until light and fluffy
• add one egg yolk at the time, while continuing mixing
• now alternating add the ground almonds and melted chocolate
• then the salt, baking powder and rose water
• in a seperate bowl, beat the egg whites until just stiff
• fold them into the chocolate mixture

• pour the cake mix into the buttered cake tin and bake for about 60 minutes
• the centre of the cake will still be a little moist
• let it cool on a cake rack
• in the meantime make the icing
• melt 25 gr unsalted butter with
• 200 gr chocolate, same as you used for the cake recipe