Ingredients

Step by step

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Grease a deep 20cm round cake tin, line the base and dust the sides with an equal quantity of flour and sugar.
2. For the cake, first of all sift the flours and cocoa together into a bowl with a pinch of salt. Next, in a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together with an electric whisk until really light and creamy – about 5 minutes. Then add the eggs one by one, beating well in between each addition. Now beat in the soured cream and milk – you’ll find that the mixture ends up looking extremely curdled, but don’t worry – it doesn’t affect the end result. Finally, sift over half of the flour mixture and lightly fold it in with a metal spoon before adding the remainder, to make a softish consistency that will easily drop from the spoon.
3. Next, put the mixture into the prepared cake tin and make a gentle hollow in the middle with the back of the spoon. Bake on the middle shelf of the preheated oven for 1-11⁄4 hours, or until risen and a fine skewer poked in the middle comes out clean. Cover with a double layer of wet baking paper during the last 10 minutes’ cooking to stop the top of the cake from over-browning. Remove, then allow the cake to rest in its tin for 10 minutes before carefully turning it out onto a wire rack to cool, ensuring that the flattest side is uppermost.
4. Make the icing while the cake is cooling. Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set it over a pan of simmering water, ensuring that the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Leave it to melt for about 5 minutes, then remove and leave to cool for 10-15 minutes before adding the cream. Let the chocolate mixture cool until it has thickened enough to coat the cake without running off. This will take about 20-30 minutes.
5. To make the almond decoration, lightly toast the almonds on a baking sheet in an oven preheated to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4 for 5 minutes, then leave to cool. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate as above. Dip the almonds into the chocolate and lay out to dry on baking paper for about 30 minutes. Once the chocolate on the almonds has hardened, dip them again in the melted chocolate and leave to dry. Then lightly roll the almonds in a bowl with the cocoa powder, and roughly chop them.
6. Heat the jam in a small pan until melted, then liberally brush all over the cake. Put a tray or plate beneath the cake, pour over the truffle icing and, using a palette knife, spread it over the top and sides. Leave the icing to firm up before sprinkling with the chopped almonds. Lift onto a plate and serve.