Double chocolate cake with a clotted cream icing

Ingredients

• 125g butter, softened 
• 175g light soft brown sugar 
• 2 eggs 
• 125g self-raising flour 
• 1tsp baking powder 
• 30g good cocoa 
• 227g tub Rodda’s Clotted Cream 
• 250g icing sugar 
• 150g white chocolate

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Lightly grease and base line an 18cm loose-bottomed cake tin.

2. Using a sturdy fork, mash together the butter and brown sugar in a large bowl until they come together into a paste. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition.

3. Add the flour, baking powder and cocoa. Stir through until you have a lovely dark cake mix. Roughly chop 100g of the chocolate and add to the mixture along with 100g of the clotted cream. Stir to combine and transfer to the prepared tin.

4. Bake for an hour. Place a tray or some foil on the shelf below as a little of the fat may leak from the tin.

5. Meanwhile make the icing. Mix together the remaining clotted cream with the icing sugar and set aside.

6. Remove the cake from the oven. Leave in the tin for about 15 minutes then tip out onto a cake rack. Cool and split into 2.

7. Fill the cake with a quarter of the icing then cover with the rest.

8. Grate or curl the remaining chocolate and scatter over the cake.

Choose good quality cocoa and white chocolate for this recipe. It will make all the difference, creating an intense chocolate flavour. When the cocoa beans are harvested, they need to be fermented first – traditionally using banana leaves. This process intensifies the cocoa flavour. Cheap chocolate producers may skip this process leaving you with a weaker flavour.

Cornish Clotted Cream

Like Champagne, Cornish Clotted Cream is one of a small number of products to have its authenticity safe-guarded with a Protected Designation of Origin status. Therefore, Cornish Clotted Cream can only be made in Cornwall using local Cornish Milk and traditional Cornish processes. Rodda's Clotted Cream combines this with a secret cooking method - perfected over 120 years - that results in cream with a rich colour, silky thick texture and a delicate golden crust. Rodda’s Cornish clotted cream is available in most major supermarkets or online at www.roddas.co.uk