Chocolate, Chilli, Tequila and Coffee Cake

I’ve offered to be the birthday cake creator at work. I love cooking, and I get to be creative when I’m baking. I was originally inspired just to make a chocolate and chilli cake, but while browsing for recipes I came across this one. I knew I had a bottle of really awful tequila lurking in the cupboard, and that everyone at work lives for coffee. What recipe could be better? This one was pretty much perfect, as we’ve got lactose and gluten intolerant people, and this meets the specifications (if you don’t serve it with cream!).

The finished cake, decorated with fresh fruit.

{IMAGE DELETED}

The recipe
250g butter
2 tbs tequila
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 ml strong expresso
2 tsp dried chilli seeds
2 tbs cocoa powder
200g brown sugar
350g dark chocolate
150g ground almonds

Put butter, 100g of brown sugar, vanilla, tequila, expresso, chilli seeds and cocoa in a double boiler. Mix until sugar dissolves, then remove from heat, leaving pan above hot water and melting the chocolate from the residual warmth.

Meanwhile, mix eggs and 100g of sugar until light and fluffy. Allow chocolate mixture to cool slightly, then fold into the eggs, being careful not to curdle them. Finally, add the almond meal.

Pour into a lined 23cm round baking tin lined with baking paper. Put whole cake pan into a large square baking pan to be filled half way with water. Bake at 160*C or 310*F for 1 hour. Cake will be very moist, but a metal stubby stick should come out clean.
The cake was very rich, and no one could guess all the ingredients. Everyone guessed chocolate, and a couple got chilli. The chilli didn’t do much other than a little burn at the back of the throat. Next time, I might add a little more, but that’s because I’m fond of spice. I had one lady ask for the recipe, so I’d consider it a success. It fed ~25 people solidly, although everyone would have eaten seconds.