Chocolate Loaf Cake with Spice and Honey

A warming comforting cake that is moist without becoming too sticky. I top it with a simple thin coating of chocolate ganache, and I think it looks rather elegant, but if you want more pizazz you can add chocolate curls or nuts or chopped fudge or dragees or whatever!

Ingredients

150 g butter softened

100 ml single cream (Arla or Elmlea is fine)

2 tbsp Drambuie (optional - or is it?!)

100 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

125 g caster sugar

75 g ordinary clear honey, with a strong flavour. Some expensive honeys

can be overwhelmed by the spice in this recipe)

4 medium eggs (3 1/2 if you only have large!)

200 g self raising flour

2 tbsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp ground mixed spice

1 tsp baking powder

Method

1 Heat the oven to 180 C. Grease and line 2 2lb loaf tins

2 Warm the cream and the Drambuie in a small non stick pan, until steaming

- don't let it come to simmer.

3 Tip in the chocolate and stir until smooth, set aside to cool.

3 When the chocolate mix is cool, take a large bowl and beat the butter and

sugar until light in colour.

4 Beat in the honey, then the eggs, and then the cream mixture to combine. Add a little flour between each egg and the cream to prevent the mixture

from curdling. Don't over-beat now.

5 Fold in the flour, baking powder and spices, mix till combined.

6 Spoon into the prepared tins and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes,

or until a skewer inserted in the middle pf the loaf comes out clean.

7 Leave in the times for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to

cool. Decorate as desired when cold.

There are two recipes for ganache on this website. Have a go at both - then choose your favourite!