Gooey Rum, Prune and Chocolate Cake Recipe

This ooey-gooey rum, prune and chocolate cake recipe is super rich and naughty, but super quick and easy to whip up.

The key to the perfect gooey but structured centre is to not bake this chocolate cake for too long – but also not too little, because you don't want it to be lava-like.

The texture is helped along by fudgy, fruity prunes, which have been made even fudgier and richer by soaking in dark rum.

As if that weren't enough, both the prunes AND the soaking rum are stirred into the chocolate cake batter.

The end result? A luxurious, intense chocolate cake with a lightly boozy chocolate mousse-like centre.

You can also watch me make this on my YouTube channel, Tashcakes:

Ready? Let's go.

Ingredients:

100g prunes, cut into quarters
150ml dark rum
120g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
100g unsalted butter
90g caster sugar
2 eggs
40g plain flour
15g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

Method:

1. The night before you want to bake this cake, put the prunes in a bowl just big enough to lay the prunes in a single layer at the bottom. Pour over the rum, cover with clingfilm, and leave to soak overnight.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 7" springform tin with nonstick baking paper.

3. Place a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl, and melt the chocolate and butter in the bowl – stir to combine well.

4. Take the mixture off the heat and stir in the caster sugar, followed by the eggs.

5. Sift in the flour and cocoa powder, add in the baking powder and salt, and stir until smooth.

6. Stir the prunes, along with any remaining unabsorbed rum, into the cake batter, and scoop into the lined cake tin.

7. Bake for 20–25 minutes (no longer), until the top is starting to crackle and the outside edges of the cake look a little puffy.

8. Leave the cake to cool a little before removing from the tin, slicing while still very slightly warm, and serving with cream or ice cream.

Enjoy, and have fun.