Strawberry Chocolate Cake

I think I should really have submitted this cake for last month's We should cocoa challenge; it was a lot more successful and tasty than the strawberry and white chocolate muffins I ended up submitting. Ah well, never mind.

After the debacle of the not-peaking-muffins I still wanted to try out the strawberry and dark chocolate combo - being much more a fan of dark chocolate than either milk or white (though I'm seriously tempted to have a go at making caramelised white chocolate as Celia has done). Just think how delicious strawberries dipped in molten dark chocolate and allowed to set are - mmm. So I thought the combo would be good in a cake. Hence this cake. Well, I'm a simple soul at heart, if I want dark chocolate and strawberries in a cake, that's what I make.... no more complicated reasons required round here!

I sort of made this up as I went along, hence the slightly random amounts of some of the ingredients in relation to each other. I had 175g in my mind, but what follows is what happened....

Strawberry and dark chocolate cake
Ingredients
160g butter, softened
175g white caster sugar
180g self raising flour
3 eggs
60g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into small pieces
130g strawberries, washed, hulled, quartered and tossed in a couple of tbsp flour extra
(vanilla extract - see below)

Method
- Preheat the oven to gas 4/180C. Grease and line a 20x23cm (8x9") small baking/roasting tin.
- Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs and flour and beat until well combined.
- Fold through the chocolate and floured strawberries quarters until well distributed.
- Spoon into prepared tin, level and bake for 45 minutes.
- When cool enough, turn onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
- Dust over a little icing sugar to serve.

If I were making this again (which would be a good idea, it was yum!) I'd add about a tsp vanilla extract just for added oomph in the cake. It didn't really need it though!

Note that when turning the cake out, it's extremely fragile - partly because it's a lovely tender cake, and partly because the strawberries tend to sink to the bottom and make the base very soft.

Really, really pleased with the way this turned out. A lovely snacking cake for break time at work, and my colleagues made their appreciation known. I really enjoyed the strawberry and dark chocolate combo. I had expected the chocolate to be harder than it was, but it was a little soft and very lovely. The strawberries mostly sank, but some remained suspended and they were a lovely burst of juiciness in the cake. I loved the way that some bites had more strawberry and some more chocolate. Mmmmm....

Just as an aside, I used Normandy salted butter for this cake. I often use salted butter, but not normally with crystals in it, but this needed using up soon. I was worried that the cake would taste funny or too salty, or worst of all have big crystals of salt in it still.... eeek, but I needn't have worried, it was fine. I obviously don't have a sufficiently sophisticated palate to be able to pick up salted butter in cakes. More joy me!

Ah, tupperware - all packed up and ready to go.