I stumbled across a great combo the other day – chocolate, blackberries and vanilla ice cream. I had a small punnet of blackberries – they ripen very early in the south of England – and a hoard of guests for dinner. Best of all the experiment was a huge success.
I made my normal chocolate cake recipe, added a handful of blackberries at the end of the mixing and stirred in gently. With the rest of the blackberries I made a sauce with added sugar and water – couldn’t tell you how much of either, but if you taste as you go and then adjust as you think best I’m sure you will be fine. I baked the cakes in muffin cases and when they were cool seived some icing sugar over them, then took them out of their paper cases and served with vanilla ice cream and the warm blackberry sauce. They were absolutely delicious!
Chocolate sponge - makes one 18″ sponge, 18 cupcakes or 12 muffins
6oz castor sugar
6oz butter or soft margerine
5oz self raising flour
3oz drinking chocolate
3 large eggs
3 tbs boiling water
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix.
Bake at Gas 4/160 for 1 hour if it is a whole sponge, 15 minutes for cup cakes and about 25 for muffins.
