Chocolate Cake and Wine

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Another episode in the occasional wine and cake series...

Chocolate is always a hard match for wine and chocolate cake isn't any easier, especially as it comes in so many variations. You need plenty of sweetness and body in any wine hoping to stand up to Chocolate and the wine will need to be sweeter than the cake if a good match is to be obtained. Best bets are to look for sweeties made in hot climates where the grapes are super ripe and may or may not be fortified with spirit for extra oomph.

Try out some of the following:

• An unctuous Pedro Ximenez from Jerez or Montilla in Spain

• Port - try an LBV in preference to cheap Ruby

• Port-style fortified wines. The Southern French versions from Banyuls, Maury and Rivesaltes would all work well, ditto Australian Liqueur Muscat.

Meanwhile the excellent and much quoted chocolate cake recipe below is adapted from Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of Southwest France (ISBN 076457602X).

Originator Marie-Claude Gracia is a well known French chef, former owner of the now closed but Michelin-starred La Belle Gasconne, in the small Gascon village of Poudenas, near Agen. This cake comes on like a chocolate brownie in texture, but the addition of salt really takes it into another dimension, especially if left to mature over several days - this recipe serves eight, if you can keep your hands off it.

Marie-Claude Gracia's Chocolate Cake with Fleur de Sel*

1.       Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 F)

2.       Line a 9" round baking dish, preferably ceramic, with parchment paper and grease the paper

3.       Melt 7 oz of good dark chocolate, remove from heat and cool slightly

4.       Cream 7 oz unsalted butter with one cup superfine sugar until light, white, soft and creamy

5.       Stir in 5 egg yolks, one at a time, and then blend in the chocolate until the mixture is entirely smooth

6.       Combine ½ cup flour, 2 tablespoons of Cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and a pinch of salt and sieve over chocolate mixture then fold to combine

7.       Beat 5 egg whites until glossy and stiff enough to "cut", then stir one large spoonful into the chocolate mixture to soften it. Slowly add the remaining whites and fold in gently, lifting the heavy chocolate mixture from the bottom of the bowl. Mix thoroughly but retain as much air as possible - the longer you take the better as the cake will be light and moist as a result

8.       Pour / scrape the mixture into the baking dish and scatter 2 pinches of Fleur de Sel or Maldon sea salt on top

9.       Bake for 30-40 minutes until set around the edge but still "jiggly" in the middle when shaken. Turn off the heat and leave to cool in the oven with the oven door ajar. The recipe says leave it for 15 minutes but overnight is fine

10.     When completely cool remove from baking dish. Store at room temperature and the cake will continue to mature for several days, getting saltier, squidgier and more flavoursome as it ages.

Serve alone or with raspberries and crème anglaise

Jerry Cornelius,

September 2009