Raspberry and Double Chocolate Cake

method:

• Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3 and sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon or in a mixer. Beat in one egg then a spoonful of the flour mix, continue adding eggs and flour alternately to the butter and sugar mix, until all the ingredients have been added and the mixture is smooth.
• Spoon the batter into a lightly buttered 23cm springform tin that has been lined in the base with a circle of greaseproof or non-stick baking paper. Level the top and bake for 35-40 minutes or until firm and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes.
• Remove from the tin and leave on a wire rack to cool completely, then break the chocolate into pieces and melt in a bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Whip the cream in a second bowl then fold in two thirds of the melted chocolate and the vanilla.
• Peel the paper from the cake then cut into two layers. Top one with half (cut side up) the cream then sprinkle with half the raspberries. Add the other cake half (cut side down) and repeat the layers.
• Drizzle the remaining melted chocolate from a spoon in zigzag lines over the top of the cake and finish with chocolate curls.