Reine de Saba (Queen of Sheba Cake)
I made this Queen of Sheba cake to honour my father a couple of days ago at his wake. As children, my sisters and I would get into the kitchen on the weekend and experiment with new chocolate cake recipes, all of which he had to taste. I hope this one took him to chocolate heaven.
Inroduction
About this Recipe
By: Sheridan Rogers
This classic, delectable Reine de Saba is easy to make and a a great hit with chocoholics. Make sure you use a good quality couverture chocolate for best results. You can use ground almonds instead of the hazelnuts, though the hazelnuts give the best flavour.
To make the caramel sugar shards go here.
Ingredients
Serves 8
- 70% good quality dark chocolate, 115g, chopped in small pieces
- softened unsalted butter, 125g
- caster sugar, 115g
- free range or organic eggs, 3 x 60g
- ground hazelnuts, 125g
- fresh fine white breadcrumbs, 4 tablespoons
Glaze
- 70% good quality dark chocolate 125g, chopped in small pieces
- unsalted butter, 50g
- honey, 2 teaspoons
Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan-forced).
Line bottom and sides of a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper.
Melt chocolate in a heatproof basin over simmering water or on medium in the microwave. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Beat the softened butter and sugar together until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, creaming well after each addition.
Add melted cooled chocolate, creaming it in. Combine nuts with breadcrumbs and stir through, mixing well.
Pour mixture into cake tin, smooth top, and bake 30 minutes – don’t worry if centre of cake is soft. Set aside in tin for half an hour before unmoulding onto cake rack. Cool completely before pouring over the glaze.
For the glaze: melt the chocolate with the butter and honey in a bowl over simmering water, stirring until smooth. Cool to coating consistency then pour over cake, smoothing the top and sides with a small invert spatula.
Decorate simply with toasted whole hazelnuts.