PARADISE FOUND, DARK CHOCOLATE AND AMARENA RECIPE

Prep Time: 1H00 Cooking Time: 0H07M Serves: 8

Decadent layers of Cloud Forest cake, soaked in Somerset cider brandy, topped with light Rio Caribe chocolate ganache studded with wild Italian Amarena cherries.

Ingredients

For the Base

6 eggs

175g raw cane sugar

150g unsalted butter

180g of 100% Rio Caribe cacao (If you want to use 70% cocoa chocolate, use 260g of it and reduce the sugar to 100g)

100g ground almonds

24 Fabri Amarena cherries in syrup

2 tablespoons of Somerset Cider Brandy (I use Somerset Cider Brandy Company Apple Brandy but you can use any brandy)

For the ganache top

400ml double cream

80g raw cane sugar

90g roughly chopped Rio Caribe 100% cacao (If you want to use 70% cocoa chocolate, use 130g of it and reduce the sugar to 40g)

Equipment

You will need 8 x 8cm round stainless steel moulds or cake cutters

Baking paper

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Method

To make The Cloud Forest Cake base

Beat 6 whole eggs with 175g sugar until doubled in size.
Melt the butter with the chocolate in a bowl over hot water.
Gently fold half the egg mixture into the chocolate, then fold in the other half
Mix in100g of ground almonds, and spread on baking tray so that once risen and fallen back the height is just less than 1cm
Bake in a tray for 7 minutes at 180 degrees.
Take 2 tablespoons of the syrup that the Amarena cherries came in, and add 2 tablespoons of brandy.
While the cake is still hot, make holes in the base with a fork, and pour over the cherry brandy syrup.
Cut 8cm diameter circles out of the sheet of cake and leave the cutters / moulds on the cake

For the ganache top

Gently heat the cream in a thick bottomed sauce pan
When hot but not bubbling, put in the chocolate and the sugar and stir until fully dissolved.
Cut strips of baking paper to line the inside of the top of each mould.
Pour the ganache over the bases, until it is 2cm deep
Push in 3 cherries into the ganache, so they are just poking out of the top
Refrigerate for about 30 minutes until set and cool.
Take out of the fridge, and push the desserts up out of their moulds and peel off the baking paper
Serve with cream