Photography: Tanya Zouev

Recipe by Suzanne Gibbs

Serving size: Serves 6
Cooking time: More than 1 hour
Course: Dessert
Favourite flavours: Cakes/baking

Chocolate and prune torte

INGREDIENTS

20g flour
200g dark chocolate, chopped roughly
150g unsalted butter
2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar
1 tablespoon rum
¾ cup (100g) ground almonds
5 eggs, separated
16 pitted prunes
Icing sugar, for dusting

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line base of a 20cm springform pan. Dust lightly with flour.

2. Place chocolate, butter, sugar and rum in a heatproof bowl. Place over a saucepan of simmering water and stir for 4-5 minutes, until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Fold through ground almonds and egg yolks.

3. Whisk eggwhites until firm. Stir 2 tablespoons of eggwhites into chocolate mixture. Gently fold in remaining.

4. Pour mixture into prepared pan and top with 8 prunes. Bake for 5 minutes. Arrange remaining prunes on top of torte. Bake for another 45 minutes, until firm. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, before removing to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar to serve.


In pictures: rush hour — last-minute entertaining ideas