Recipe of the Week: Chocolate Cake with a Fig Centre and Ganache

When it comes to thoughtful, delicious recipes to bring family and friends together, Maggie Beer never disappoints. This recipe for Chocolate Cake with a Fig Centre and Ganache makes for the perfect finale to any family gathering.

Chocolate Cake with a Fig Centre and Ganache
serves 8-10

This is an amazingly luscious cake that is best made with figs picked ripe from the tree. The base recipe is in fact Simone beck's Very Rich Chocolate Cake with Cherries from Simca's Cuisine, an old favourite; the page in my copy is very fingered and chocolate-splattered! This cake is rich rather than sweet, so is perfect for my taste.

For the cake
450g (approximately 2 cups) bitter chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon best-quality instant coffee granules
1/2 cup brandy or fruit liqueur
4 free-range eggs, separated
150g (approximately 2/3 cup) unsalted butter, chopped
1/3 cup plain flour
Pinch salt
1/3 cup (75 g) castor sugar
8 plump, ripe figs, peeled and chopped

For the ganache
225g (approximately 1 cup) bitter chocolate, chopped
150 ml (approximately 5 ounces) cream
2 teaspoons best-quality instant coffee granules

Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Grease and line a 26 cm (10-inch) springform cake tin. Melt the chocolate with the instant coffee granules and brandy in a heavy-based enameled or stainless steel saucepan over low heat until smooth, then remove from the heat. Mix one egg yolk at a time into the chocolate mixture. Return the pan to the heat just to warm the yolks and thicken the mixture. Remove from the heat again and add the butter, a knob at a time, stirring until it is all incorporated. Sift the flour and stir it into the chocolate mixture.

Beat the egg whites with the salt until they form soft peaks, then add the castor sugar and beat until stiff. Fold the warm chocolate mixture carefully into the egg whites and turn the batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes and remove from the oven (it is important not to overcook the cake). It will puff like a soufflé in the centre and must be left to cool in the tin for 45 minutes before it is turned out onto a wire rack. The cake will shrink and crack as it cools.

Cut a 12 cm-wide circle in the middle of the cooled cake and scrape out the cake with a dessertspoon, leaving a 2.5 cm border and the base intact. The cake you extract will be so moist and rich you could roll it into balls like truffles - instead, mix it with the figs and pile it back into the hollowed-out cake.

For the ganache, melt the chocolate with the cream and instant coffee granules in a heavy-based enameled or stainless steel saucepan over low heat until smooth and shiny. Cool the ganache, then cover the cake generously with it. Put the cake in a cool place until required - don't refrigerate it or the ganache will lose its sheen.

Maggie's Harvest, by Maggie Beer. Photography by Mark Chew. Penguin Global, $125