Fairtrade chocolate cake with honey glaze icing*

I made this cake to thank some friends for helping me find my dog after he had run off chasing deer. You can read the full story here, if you like tales of errant spaniels and their hapless owners...

However, if you are more interested in cake, and in particular how to use fantastic fairtrade ingredients to make a delicious cake, read on. Foodies100 is running a competition to highlight Fairtrade issues, to remind us that there are many farmers in the third world, struggling to get a fair price for the crops they produce and which we all love to use in our baking. You can read more about the competition and the challenge here  

This is a simple and easy cake that tastes wondeful. Lovely and chocolatey without being too sweet, while the honey glaze icing (adapted from a Nigella recipe in Feast) adds a sweet chocolatey, sticky-ness.

It's delicious (my dog-finding friends let me have a slice!) - and while you don't need to lose your dog to make it, I suspect the name is there to stay...
 

Dogcatcher Cake (with honey glaze icing)

150g unsalted butter
 200g Fairtrade dark chocolate (I love using Divine, and did for this recipe)
4 eggs
220g Fairtrade caster sugar
150g self raising flour

125ml Fairtrade runny honey (e.g. Steenbergs)
60 ml water
150g Fairtrade dark chocolate
25g Fairtrade white chocolate
150g Fairtrade icing sugar



Pre-heat the oven to 180C and butter and line the base of a 20cm spring form cake tin.

Melt the butter and dark chocolate in a bowl over a simmering pan of water. Separate the eggs and whisk the yolks with the sugar in a large bowl until light and foamy. Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl (I used my Kenwood) till they are doubled and airy. Pour the melted butter/chocolate onto the whisked yolks/sugar and whisk together. Sift in the self raising flour, fold in the egg white with a metal spoon, then pour carefully into the tin. Bang the tin down a couple of times to get the mixture to even out in the tin, and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool completely, then make the icing. Put the honey and water into a smallish pan and bring to the boil. Chop the chocolate finely, take the honey/water off the heat and add the chocolate. Swirl the pan around a few times to get the chocolate melting, leave for a couple of minutes then whisk. Start sifting in the icing sugar - start with half, whisking the mixture, and carry on adding the icing sugar till you get a thick glossy icing. Allow the icing to cool down till it is thickened and spreadable - and spread it on.

Allow to cool and serve with lashings of gratitude.



 (* and yes, if you read my post about the Dogcatcher Cake, it's the same cake, just this is the short version to enter the Foodies 100 Bake it fair Fairtrade competition)