Squares of rich, dense, chewy, moist cake with lots of flavour are hard to beat. This chocolate raisin ale cake recipe is one such and it's a winner. It's an easy-to-make one pan cake with no need for creaming. Simply, melt and mix.
Pour the ale into a large saucepan and add the oats and cocoa powder.
330 ml ale, 50 g rolled oats (porridge oats), 25 g cocoa powder
Give it a good stir, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute.
Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and chocolate. Leave a minute or two for the chocolate and butter to melt.
75 g unsalted butter, 100 g dark chocolate
Add the sugar and stir well.
225 g dark muscovado sugar
Beat in the egg and vanilla extract.
1 large egg, 2 tsp vanilla extract
Mix in the raisins.
150 g raisins
Sieve in the flour and baking powder and stir until it's well mixed in. Throw in any bran left in the sieve,
250 g wholemeal spelt flour, 1 tsp baking powder
Scrape the mixture into a 23cm (9") lined cake tin or lightly greased silicone mould. Place on the middle shelf of your oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool.
Ganache
Whilst the cake is cooling, melt the chocolate in a pan with the crème fraîche over a gentle heat. Stir gently from the inside out until it's just mixed. Over mixing often causes the ganache to split, so go carefully.
100 g dark chocolate, 100 ml crème fraîche
Spread the ganache on top of the cooled cake, then cut into 16 squares. Be careful not to ruin your baking tin or mould.