Chocolate and ginger brownie cake – spare me the details!

Do you like food blogs which interlink stories about the writer's personal life alongside their cooking...or do you just read them for the recipes?

Do you answer questions that foodbloggers post as part of an article...or are they just hypothetical…?!

There are some American writers, like Joy the Baker and Shutterbean, whose style is so relaxed and engaging that I feel like we are virtually friends - as such, I love reading the amusing anecdotes from their everyday lives that surround the tales from their kitchen.

There are some British bloggers, like Selina, Giulia and Laura, who I meet up with regularly - therefore, I have a personal interest in their general happiness. Sometimes during our food-adventures around the big smoke they even manage to capture a nice snapshot of me (a rare occurrence for anyone!).

But scrolling through the gluttony of new posts that appear on my RSS feed every day, I've come to the harsh realisation that I'm generally much more interested in the subject than in the author. To capture my attention, a blog must present appetising dishes containing my favourite ingredients, accompanied by luscious photos that make my mouth water, my stomach rumble and my knees weak. The genesis of recipe doesn't concern me as much as the sheer fact that it now exists, so that I can recreate it in my own home in my own time.

So with this in mind, I'll spare you the personal history behind this decadent chocolate and ginger brownie cake, which I made on Day #126 of my #project366 challenge. I'll simply say that this rich baked goodie is a perfectly balanced combination of contrasts - crunchy caramelised outer coating, moist crumbly centre, bitter dark chocolate and sweet crystallised chunks of ginger, with a lingering subtle fiery kick. It was an overwhelming hit with my family and friends, so I thought you might want to try a slice (or two) yourself!

Chocolate and ginger brownie cake (serves 10, adapted from a recipe by BBC Good Food)

175g unsalted butter (plus extra for greasing)

200g good-quality dark chocolate (I used Green & Black’s Ginger Chocolate for extra spiciness )

200g caster sugar

3 medium eggs, yolks and whites separated

65g plain flour

60g crystallised ginger

1. Heat oven to 180C, butter a 20-25cm cake tin and line with greaseproof paper. Break up the chocolate into chunks and dice the crystallised ginger into small pieces.

2. Place all the butter, sugar and 160g of the chocolate in a heavy-based pan and heat gently until melted. Make sure you stir the mixture occasionally to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan, then leave to cool.

3. Whisk the egg yolks into the chocolate mixture, then add 45g of the crystallised ginger, plain flour, and the rest of the dark chocolate to form a gooey brownie mix.

4. Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks, then gently fold into the pan’s contents until it has been thoroughly combined with the chocolate mix.

5. Pour the brownie mixture into the cake tin, and scatter the remaining crystallised ginger over the top. Bake the cake in the centre of the oven for 35 – 40 minutes. The cake is ready when the top is crusty – poke the inside with a metal skewer to make sure that this is mostly cooked, but don’t worry if some residue remains as this will just mean that the brownie is still moist in the centre. (I think I probably overcooked my cake the first time I tried this recipe, and would have preferred it to be squidgier!)

6. Leave the brownie cake to cool before running a knife around the edge to extract it from the tin. Tuck in to an unadulterated slice to experience the full flavour sensation, or serve with clotted cream ice-cream for a less-intense (but equally decadent) version.