Little F’s steamed caramel cake

Little F’s Steamed Caramel Cake

From Stonesoup

You know how some cakes tend to cook and be dry on the edges but moist in the middle? The original versions of this cake kept doing that to me until I stumbled across the idea to ‘steam’ the cake by putting a plate on it to capture the steam as it cools. This keeps everything super moist and lovely. Thanks to Margot Henderson via a steamed chocolate cake recipe in Australian Gourmet Traveller for the idea.

Enough for about 10
100g (3.5oz) butter
250g (9oz) white chocolate (made with real cocoa butter), broken into chunks
6 eggs, separated
200g (7oz) brown sugar
250g (3.5oz) almond meal

1. Preheat your oven to 160C (320F). Grease a 24cm (9in) springform pan.

2. Melt butter in small saucepan. Remove from the heat and add chocolate chunks. Allow to stand while the chocolate melts.

3. Meanwhile, whisk the egg whites until super light and foamy. Gradually beat in brown sugar until well combined.

4. When the chocolate has melted stir and add egg yolks to the mixture.

5. Add the chocolate mixture and almond meal to the egg whites and fold gently until just combined.

6. Carefully transfer the mixture to your prepared tin.

7. Bake for 1 hour or until the cake is deeply golden and feels springy in the middle when you touch it.

8. Remove cake from the oven. Cover with a plate and allow to cool and steam for at least an hour.

VARIATIONS
vegan / egg-free – I’m afraid the eggs are really key to the texture of this cake.

dairy-free – I haven’t tried this but you could easily replace the butter with coconut oil. And replace the white chocolate wiht a combination of 100g extra coconut oil, 100g extra almond meal and 50g extra brown sugar. If you do try this let me know!

nut-free – replace almond meal with 150g (5oz) plain (all-purpose) flour. Again I haven’t tried this but it’s where I’d start.