Puddings & Desserts
Puddings & Desserts
Chocolate and strawberry cake
A delicious cake that makes the perfect summer dessert
This recipe was inspired by a conversation at a tea party in my village, about the fact that strawberries this year (2026) seem to be lacking in flavour, maybe because of the stop-start weather we’re having. Someone mentioned that Nigella Lawson had recently written a magazine article with recipes to help overcome this, so I looked up the article and realised that one of her ideas would make the perfect accompanied to my chocolate brownie recipe (made without the flour, so it’s extra squidgy and more dessert-like). So, thank you Nigella for kicking off this lovely dessert!
Ingredients
Serves 8-10
- For the brownie cake:
- 180g dark chocolate, broken into chunks
- 180g unsalted butter (at room temperature, cut into cubes)
- 270g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 5 tbsp cocoa powder
- For the strawberries:
- 400g fresh strawberries
- 50g caster sugar
- juice of half a lemon
- 3 tbsp white vermouth or sherry (optional)
- Greek yogurt or double cream and toasted flaked almonds, to serve (plus fresh strawberries, optional)
Method
To make the cake, melt the dark chocolate and butter in a small glass bowl set over a small pan of simmering water, stirring every now and again. Meanwhile, beat the sugar and eggs together with an electric hand whisk until pale and creamy.
Allow the chocolate mixture to cool a little then stir very gently into the eggs and sugar. Stir in the cocoa powder until it's all well combined. Pour into a tin lined with baking parchment and bake in a preheated oven at 160C (fan oven) for exactly 26 minutes.
Meanwhile, put the whole strawberries in a shallow ovenproof dish with the sugar, lemon juice and vermouth or sherry (if using) and cover tightly with foil. When the cake comes out of the oven, increase the temperature to 180C (fan oven) and cook the strawberries for 20 mins. Allow to cool. Prick the cake all over with a skewer. Strain off the strawberry cooking juices and pour over the cake, then top with the cooked strawberries, and yogurt or cream. Sprinkle over toasted almonds.
A Cook's Plot Tip
You can use either a round 23cm cake tin or a rectangular brownie tin for this. If you can find strawberries with any flavour, save some of them to serve with each slice