Chocolate Rum Cake - A Random Recipe

Don't particularly want to write this post but rules are rules and blog I must.

This months Random Recipe challenge over at Belleau Kitchen was to randomly choose a book and then go to the very centre of the book and cook that recipe. I did plan to randomly pick the book but then I saw this little book sat on my shelf that I had not used yet so I opted for that one instead. The book was Mary Berry's 100 Sweet Treats and Puds and the middle recipe was - Chocolate Rum cake. so far good, so on I went with the baking.

Reading the recipe it seemed a little odd and overly complicated involving separating eggs, beating the yolks with the sugar and whisking the whites and folding them into the mix but still if it makes a good cake then so be it.

It didn't.

The end result was a very flat cake that barely rose and the small amount it did rise sank back once removed the oven, even with the cake fully cooked.

The topping quantities make way to much, I still had half a bowl left over after drowning the cake.

The cake itself was incredibly dry, claggy and with a chalky texture, I don't know if this was my fault by splitting the mixture between two tins instead of one tin, can't see how it would make much difference to the overall texture.

The flavour of the rum barely came through either.

Here is the recipe if you want to give it ago, you may have better luck.

Ingredients
200g plain chocolate
100g cubed butter
3 large eggs separated
100g dark muscavdo sugar
50ml dark rum
75g self raising flour
50g ground almonds

Filling and icing
225g plain chocolate
100g butter, cubed

Method
Melt the chocolate with the butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.
Allow to cool slightly
Beat the eggs yolks and sugar together until pale and creamy.
Add the chocolate and rum and mix well.
Fold in the flour and almonds.
Whisk the egg whites until they turn stiff but not dry and fold into the mixture.
Pour into the tin and level the surface
Bake for 45 minutes until a skewer is removed clean. (I used two tins and reduced the baking time to 20 minutes)
Allow to cool for a few minutes then turn out onto a wire rack.

Filling and topping
Melt the chocolate in the same way.
Add the cubed butter and stir until incorporated, use to fill and decorate the cake.