Rose Prince's Baking Club: chocolate and toasted almond cake Ingredients list You will need a 25cm/10in cake tin with loose base, buttered, the base lined with baking parchment, then buttered again and dusted with flour 170g/6oz blanched almonds 50g/1 ¾ oz cocoa 100g/3 ½ oz boiling water 1 tsp vanilla essence 225g/8oz butter, softened 225g/8oz caster sugar, plus 1 heaped dessert spoonful 6 medium eggs, separated Pinch of salt ¾ tsp cream of tartar To decorate: either dust with icing sugar or melt 100g/3 ½ oz milk chocolate with 100g/3 ½ oz double cream and spread over the cake Preheat the oven to 180C. Put the almonds in a shallow baking tray and toast in the oven for about 15 minutes until pale gold - but do make sure they do not become too dark. Remove from the oven, allow to cool, then put in a food processor and grind to a powder. Put the cocoa in a small bowl and add the hot water and vanilla, then mix to make a smooth paste. Put the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat until pale. Beat in the egg yolks, followed by the (cooled) cocoa mixture and almonds. Put the egg whites into a separate bowl and whisk with the salt until foamy. Add the cream of tartar then whisk until soft white peaks form. Add the heaped dessert spoonful of sugar, then whisk for another few seconds until white and glossy. Fold in to the chocolate mixture, then turn into the tin and bake for 50 minutes. The cake will rise but sink again when taken out of the oven and cooled. Remove the cake from the tin but allow it to cool on the base - it is very fragile. Serve either dusted with icing sugar, which enhances its lovely lightness, or glazed. Kirsty Whitely asks about baker's "pearl" sugar, those little nibs that you can scatter over fruit sponges before you bake, or brioche, and which stay crystallised after baking. Where can I buy nibbed sugar, and, while asking, do you know why they do not melt during baking? Pearl or nibbed sugar can be bought from Bakery Bits - and it will not melt because it contains starch. But it will burn, so be careful not to raise the oven temperature too high. Next week: Summer fruit charlotte - you will need raspberries and strawberries, double cream, icing sugar, eggs, sugar and flour.