We usually reserve our sweet treats for Sunday but we thought it would be wrong if we didn’t mark today, which is Chocolate Cake Day in case you didn’t know, with a delicious recipe. Today’s creation is Decadent Chocolate Cake (we’re salivating just at the thought) and it’s courtesy of the Odlums website. Yum!                                                                                                 Ingredients:

• 175g/6oz Odlums Cream Plain Flour
• 75g/3oz plain chocolate (at least 70 % cocoa solids)
• 200g/7oz butter
• 175g/6oz Shamrock Golden Caster Sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 100g packet Shamrock Ground Almonds
• 2 tablespoons cocoa (sieved)
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the chocolate cream:

• 142ml carton cream
• 175/6oz plain chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)

  Method: 1. Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5. Lightly grease and base line a 23cms/9in deep sandwich tin. 2. Break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Add 25g/1oz of the butter and stand the bowl over a pan of hot water until chocolate has melted. 3. Meanwhile put the remaining butter, caster sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, ground almonds, cocoa, milk and vanilla essence into a large bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. 4. Add the melted chocolate and gently stir into the mixture. Transfer to the prepared tin and level the top. 5. Bake for about 40 minutes until risen and the surface feels firm to the touch. Remove from oven. Allow to sit in tin for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire tray to cool. 6. Make the chocolate cream by heating the cream until just bubbling around the edges. Add the chocolate and gently stir over a low heat until melted. Remove from heat. 7. Transfer to a bowl and allow to cool and begins to set. (Don't cool the icing in the fridge otherwise it will lose its shine.) 8. Slice cake horizontally and use half the icing to sandwich the cake. 9. Spread remaining icing on top and sides of cake. 10. Serve with raspberries, cream or crème fraiche.