White Chocolate Cake Recipe

Honey Hush

We’re working on the following obituaries for Saturday’s newspaper: Willie Wilson of Enoree (Goins Funeral Home, Inc.); Angela Shell of Fountain Inn (Beasley Funeral Home); Henry Roman of Greenville (Liberty Mortuary); Martha Willis of Clemson; Bill Durham of Pickens (Dillard Funeral Home); Dorothy Martin of Greenville (Thomas McAfee Funeral Home, Downtown); Annie Pierce of Greenville [...

No-bake chocolate praline cake | Musings from a Stonehead

I was fossicking through our ancient removal cartons in search of a computer game for the boys when I made what the Other Half would describe as a momentous discovery.

Buried at the bottom of one of the boxes was a sheaf of chocolate pudding and cake recipes.

The recipes were developed quite a few years ago, with the aid of assorted food editors, cookery writers and researchers, as a way of rewarding teams I led at various times. As most of my teams had a higher proportion of women to men, chocolate treats were always extremely welcome as a way of saying “thanks” when a difficult jobs had been done on time and on budget.

All the recipes had to have a high “bang-for-buck” factor for two reasons: most of the women would say “oh, just a small piece for me” and there had to be enough to go around, especially as word spread beyond my immediate team.

As a result, almost all the recipes are extremely rich, extremely intense and extremely luxurious. They really should be eaten in small amounts.

I’ll put most of them on the blog over the next few days and, as the budget permits, I’ll also post photos of the ones we make in the coming weeks.

The first recipe happens to be the Other Half’s favourite: a no-bake chocolate praline cake.

Ingredients

125g caster sugar

Method

Grease a deep, 23cm round cake tin, then line both the base and sides with baking parchment. Lightly oil a baking sheet. Place the caster sugar in a heavy saucepan and cook over a low heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar begins to melt. Stir in the almonds and continue stirring until the sugar is completely melted. Cook for a further minute or two until the mixture begins to turn golden. Pour the praline onto the baking sheet. Shake the sheet gently to spread the mixture out and leave to cool. Spread the crushed amaretti over the base of the cake tin. Place the praline in a plastic bag, then crush into small pieces with a heavy rolling pin. Place the chocolate, glucose and cognac in a bowl and stand in a pan of simmering water. Stir gently until the chocolate is fully melted, then beat quickly and briefly until the mixture is thoroughly combined. Set the chocolate mixture aside to cool slightly—it should be just warm. Whisk the cream until thickened but stop before peaks form. Fold the cream into the warm chocolate mixture.