Bruce Bogtrotter is the poor sod who’s made to eat the entirety of a ridiculously huge chocolate cake by the evil Miss Trunchbull in Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’ (click here to see the stomach churning scene from the movie).

When I was a kid we had two copies of Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes, a book published in 1994 with a collection of recipes inspired by the outlandish (and sometimes disgusting) food in his books. Treats from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, Snozzcumbers from The BFG, George’s Marvellous Medicine and plenty more.

I must have flicked through the pages thousands of times, but the only recipe I made was Bruce Bogtrotter’s Chocolate Cake. It was in my early high school years, we had a book themed food party in english class one day and I remember putting a sign on the cake saying ‘Warning: VERY rich’. I was right to do so.

I decided to make the cake for Bec’s birthday because I know the gooey, fudgey cake would go down a treat. There is an entire block of chocolate in the cake AND another whole block in the icing. Prepare yourselves.

For the cake you will need:

250g Good quality plain chocolate
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
4 tbsp plain flour
6 eggs, separated

Coating:
250g good quality plain chocolate
1 cup double cream

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease and line the cake tin with greaseproof paper. Melt the chocolate in a pyrex bowl, over a saucepan of simmering water or on a low heat in a microwave.

Mix in the butter and stir until melted, then add the flour, sugar and lightly beaten egg yolks.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff and then gently fold half of the whites into the chocolate mixture, mixing thoroughly.

Then carefully fold in the remaining whites. Cook for approx. 35 minutes. There will be a thin crust on top of the cake and if tested with a skewer the inside will appear uncooked but don’t worry as this is the character of the cake and it gets firmer as it cools.

Leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack. When cool enough to handle remove from the cake tin and discard the greaseproof paper.

In a pyrex bowl over a saucepan of simmering water melt together the chocolate and cream, stirring occasionally until the chocolate is fully melted and blended with the cream. Allow to cool slightly. The cake is prone to sinking slightly in the middle so place upside down for coating. With a knife carefully spread the chocolate coating all over the cake. Allow to set in a cool place before serving.

I added some Flake chocolate to make the cake look more festive.

The birthday girl and I (excuse my gross, lank looking hair?!)

The cake is seriously rich and more like ganache texture than cake texture. It was even better at 4am the next morning (like most food!).

Now excuse me while I go re-read all of the Roald Dahl books. I think Esio Trot was my favourite. Yours?