a picture of a chocolate and almond cake on a marble cake stand

Catherine Phipps: Chocolate and Almond Cake

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[object Object] This is quite a dense, rich cake which works well warm from the cooker as a dessert as well as cold. If you add the syrup as well it becomes a chocolate drizzle cake. Also, if you want to add alcohol to it and are serving children, you can instead drizzle it over, warm, at the table instead of using it to soak the whole cake.

Buy Everyday Pressure Cooking by Catherine Phipps (Quadrille, £25) here

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Pressure Cooker recipes

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Method

Beat the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until very soft and aerated. Mix the cocoa, flour, almonds and baking powder together with a pinch of salt. Add the dry mix, the eggs, the crème fraîche or soured cream and the grated chocolate to the butter/sugar mixture and gently fold everything in together.

Spoon into the lined tin and smooth over as much as you can – this batter is quite dense so may be a bit resistant. Cover the tin with foil.

Pour 3cm (1¼in) of water into your pressure cooker and add a trivet. Place the tin on top of the trivet, using a foil sling if it is a tight fit. Loosely cover the cooker with the lid and place over a high heat. As soon as steam starts to appear, time for 15 minutes. Check the water level and top up if necessary, then close the lid and bring up to high pressure. Adjust the heat so it is just high enough to maintain the pressure, and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to drop pressure naturally.

Remove from the pressure cooker but leave the cake in the tin. If using the syrup, put the sugar and cocoa in a small saucepan and add 100ml (3½fl oz) of water. Whisk to combine and simmer until syrupy. Add the alcohol to taste, if using. Poke holes all over the top of the cake and pour over half the syrup, reserving the rest to add just before serving.

Serve warm or hot, or leave to cool in the tin. Either way, pour over the remaining syrup before serving.