THE STUDENT VEGETARIAN COOK BOOK

Cook Book but even better. Quick and easy to make, its excellence depends largely, as with everything flavoured with chocolate, on the kind of chocolate used. Use plain rather than milk, not too sweet and with a high cocoa content: the higher, the better - and the higher the price. Cooking rather than ordinary chocolate, with its higher fat content, is easier to use, since ordinary chocolate sometimes turns gritty when heated. Easily the best cooking (and eating) chocolate of which I know is Valrhonabut it is nearly twice as expensive as the next best, Menier Chocolat Patissier. Sweeter but a bargain at the price is Sainsbury's Deluxe Chocolate for cooking.

As the cake contains more almonds than flour it will stay fresh and moist for at least a week. So far as finishing it is concerned, this is unlikely to be more than an academic point, but it does mean that you can make it fora particularoccasion ahead of time. A tablespoon of brandy instead of coffee or water in which to melt the chocolate also helps it to keep.

You can ice the cake all over or just on top -see below.

• INGREDIENTS .

6 oz/190 g cooking or plain cnocolate

I tablespoon water, brandy or strong made coffee

6 oz/190 g soft margarine

6 oz/190 g soft brown sugar

3 eggs (size 2)

2 oz/50 g wnite or wnolemeal self-raising ffour

3 '12 oz/lOO g ground almonds

FILLING

3 oz/90 g butter

2 oz/50 g cooking or plain cnocolate

I '12 oz/40 g ground almonds

Icingfortopandsides

6 oz/190 g cooking or plain cnocolate

3 oz/90 g butter

I tablespoon strong made coffee or water

About 2 '12 oz/70 g icing sugar