CHOCOLATE TRAY CAKE WITH SALTED CARAMEL GANACHE

CHOCOLATE TRAY BAKE WITH SALTED CARAMEL GANACHE (OR ICING AS I PREFER TO CALL IT!)

This cake is ridiculously good, and very very rich, and be warned, once you have had one piece and set those taste buds into full working action, it is impossible to stop (I'm just very lucky that I have a greedy cleaner)
My darling Hugo actually finishes school today - that is it - no more - never ever, I literally cannot believe that time has gone that quickly.  He's nearly reached the grand old age of 19, and seems relatively unscarred by having me as a mother - so I am delighted.  He comes home in a few hours (yeah!) and along with Max, who has just come back from an emotional 3 day trip to the battlefields and graveyards in France and Belgium from the 1st World War, I thought that cake was a must!
And now the kids are nearly all home, Mike and I can put our Sunday behind us for good - (no kids, and a day on the sofa surrounded by crisps, chocolate, cake, ashtrays...not a good look!) thank god for children is all I can say, I knew I had them for a reason!

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CAKE
4 and half tbsp cocoa
180g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
225g dark chocolate (broken into pieces)

170g unsalted butter
4 eggs
300g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
240ml buttermilk

FOR THE GANACHE (ICING)
140g caster sugar
250ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp brandy (or any super tasty alcohol in the cupboard)
450g dark chocolate
2 egg yolks

Heat oven to 170 degrees, and grease your baking tin (approx 13 x 9 inch one)

So.. for the cake first.. mix together the cocoa, plain flour, bicarb soda and half a tsp salt.  In another bowl, melt the chocolate and butter over a saucepan of boiling water until it's all melted and then put aside to cool.
Whisk the eggs, sugar, vanilla and buttermilk in a big jug, and mix into the slightly cooled melted choc. And, then add all the dry ingredients from the other bowl.  It will hopefully look all smooth and glossy, and also quite tasty...Put in your greased tin, and cook for around 35 to 40 mins (kind of like a brownie - so don't think it's not quite ready and cook for too long, because it is essential that it is a little wet (I will refrain from using the word moist, but you know what I mean - do the skewer test, and if it comes out with a few crumbs on it, it is probably ready)

Now, for the icing (seriously, I can't get enough) I must have eaten half the bowl before I whizzed out to see the HB's for a pre cinema supper, I felt sick before I arrived, but still managed a VAST Lebanese, followed by a whole load of shit at the cinema - anyway....)
Put the caster sugar in a little saucepan with around 50ml water. Slowly stir over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved, and then you turn up the heat and boil until the syrup is like a golden brown (it may go through a hard crystal stage - but stick with it!).  Once its the golden brown syrupy texture, then take it off the heat and slowly add the cream.  When the bubbles have calmed down, keep stirring until smooth, add 1 tsp salt, the vanilla essence and the alcohol.  Leave to the side.
Break up all the chocolate, pour the caramel over it, and slowly stir till the choc has melted (I sometimes melt it a bit over a saucepan of water first, to speed things up).  Once it's all melted and mixed, then add the egg yolks, and leave to cool.

When it's cold (so, in my case, after the cinema) - spoon over the cake and smooth.  Add a little sea salt over the top and whatever else you fancy - I put white choc buttons on mine, but then got hungry so took them all off and ate them)  But the cake is delicious, that it doesn't need anything else, and only hope that I can manage to wait until the kids tuck in before I finish it off....