Delicious May 2013 - Raspberry, chocolate & almond tea cake

I had so much trouble deciding what to make from this issue. I kept see-sawing back and forth. Now it is almost the end of the month and I decided tonight that I just had to pick something and make it. 

So the recipes that I was see-sawing over. Valli's Coffee & walnut cake. It looks so good but I really didn't want to buy the Camp Chicory & Coffee essence to make it. I am sure that I could have used a shot or two of espresso but I wasn't sure how much or how strong, so I took the easy way out and moved on. 

Jill Dupleix's Bean thread noodles with tofu & eggplant looks fabulous. Just packed full of flavour and a great looking vegetarian dish. However, it would have involved buying at least half of the ingredients and I am trying to use up stuff in my cupboards, not add more to it and I just didn't have good substitutes. 

Katie Quinn's Harissa & capsicum chicken was the recipe that was winning the race right up until the end. I had planned to make it tonight and even took the chicken out of the freezer. Two things went wrong. The chicken wasn't fully thawed and secondly I was so late home from work tonight that I just wanted to eat then and there, so I had boiled eggs and toast instead. Hopefully I will get this made tomorrow night. 

In the end I decided to make Valli's Raspberry, chocolate & almond tea cake tonight. The photo looked good and it sounded really good with the added bonus that I didn't need to buy anything. I did make this gluten free. It worked okay but I think I should have cooked it for another 5 minutes it was still a little doughy in the middle. That was my fault though, the skewer didn't look quite clean but I didn't follow my instincts. It is nice but I am not sure I would make it again. Oh, and my photo isn't all that great, it just did not want to slice well, that might be because I wanted to try it so didn't wait for it to cool.

Raspberry, chocolate & almond cake

150g softened unsalted butter, chopped

2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence

50ml milk

1 cup (150g) gluten free flour
2 tsp baking powder

150g almond meal

¾ cup (135g) dark choc chips

150g raspberries

1/3 cup (25g) flaked almonds

Icing sugar, to dust

METHOD

Preheat oven to 170°C (fan-forced).  Grease 20cm round cake pan.

Cream butter and sugar until pale.  Add the eggs, one at a time and beat to incorporate.

Add the vanilla and milk and beat to combine.  

Fold in flour and almond meal and finally the raspberries and choc chips.

Spread mix in cake pan and bake for 50 - 55 minutes or until a skewer is inserted into the centre comes out clean.  Turn out after 10 minutes and cool completely.  Dust with icing sugar to serve.