Yet another outing for James Martin’s Desserts*. This time it was his recipe for baked chocolate mousse, which he bigs up as “one of the best in the book”.

Given such a billing I’m not sure why I haven’t made it before … maybe it’s because the recipe looked as though it involved a few too many bowls, or looks like it might be a bit complicated. Well, the first is true, but getting from start to finish is both easy (well, easy if you’re reasonably handy in the kitchen – I wouldn’t try this as your first ever baking exercise) and quick.

Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease and base line a 20cm spring form tin.

Bowl number 1: melt 300g dark chocolate with 150g of unsalted butter. Be brave and use the microwave!

Bowl number 2: whisk 6 egg yolks with 2 tbsp of caster sugar. Martin specifies for 30 seconds but I’m sure I didn’t have a timer on when I did this! Just think briefly! Also I used my KitchenAid for this step because it’s a good, big bowl … perfect for later in the recipe. Stir in the butter and chocolate and mix well.

Bowl number 3: beat 6 egg whites to soft peaks and then whisk in 50g of caster sugar and continue beating until the mixture is very stiff (I used the whisk attachment on my stab mixer). As is always the case when doing this kind of thing, ensure the bowl is clean (grease free is very important) and dry before you start.

Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mix. Don’t do it all at once: take generous spoonfuls of the egg white, fold it in well and repeat.

Once well combined, pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for ~ 20 minutes. The top should be set but it will still be a bit wobbly and yes, it will collapse. That’s OK, it’s not a normal cake!

Allow to cool before serving but DON’T put this in the fridge (it will go rock solid which is not the look you’re after).

At the very moment of serving, you can lightly dust the cake with icing sugar (if you do this too early the cake will just absorb the icing sugar and you’ll have to start dusting again). Serve with whipped (or thick) cream and, if you can bothered, raspberry coulis.

We had this at our family Easter lunch and not only was it demolished but I was also asked for the recipe several times. Aside from the washing up, this is easy, tasty and, as an added bonus, happens to be gluten free!

*Also available from Amazon UK, Amazon US and internationally from The Book Depository.