Recipes

Espresso and Hazelnut Cake and Fairtrade Coffee

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on March 2 2012 at 09:58

As you've probably noticed we're currently in the middle of Fairtrade Fortnight. Encouragingly sales of Fairtrade produce and products were up 12% last year making sales in the UK worth £1.32bn in 2011, compared to £1.17bn in 2010, according to this recent piece in the Guardian.

To celebrate here's a delicious recipe from the Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook (£16.99 Dorling Kindersley) from Ruth Rogers and the late, great Rose Gray of London’s famous River Café. I suggest accompanying it with a cup of freshly brewed Rwandan or Ethiopian Fairtrade coffee from my favourite coffee company Union Hand-Roasted (available online at www.unionroasted.com.)

Ingredients
Serves 6
Preparation time 20 minutes
Cooking time 50 minutes

200g (7oz) butter, plus extra for greasing
400g (14 oz) hazelnuts, shelled
2 tbsp espresso used making Fairtrade coffee
200g (7oz) Fairtrade 70% dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
6 medium eggs
220g (7 3/4 oz) caster sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5.
Using the extra butter grease a 25cm (10in) cake tin and line with parchment paper
Roast the hazelnuts in the oven until brown. Let cool, rub off the skins and grind the nuts to a fine powder.
Make up espresso, using Fairtrade coffee.
Melt the chocolate with the butter and coffee in a bowl over barely simmering water. Cool, then fold in the hazelnuts.
Separate the eggs and beat the yolks and sugar in a mixer until pale and doubled in size. Fold in the chocolate.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and then carefully fold into the mixture. Pour into the tin.
Bake in the oven for 50 minutes. Cool in the tin.

Tip: Turn the cake upside down out of the tin to serve. You could dust it with some icing sugar if you like.

NB: This would also be delicious with a coffee or hazelnut liqueur such as Kahlua or Frangelico

If you’d like be able to check out all the food and wine pairings on the site you can buy a bundle of credits here to access my premium content.

And/or for regular updates on what and where I’ve been eating, drinking and travelling sign up for my weekly newsletter Eat This, Drink That, Live Well.