Nigella's Chocolate gingerbread

I haven't made a large cake since the end of November when I made our Christmas cake. In the immediate days and weeks following Christmas, I opted to make muffins, cupcakes and other small delights in order to make up for all those Christmas indulgences. However, as much as I love making small cakes, they tend to disappear very quickly and I wanted to make something that had a little more longevity. This chocolate gingerbread seemed the perfect solution. It's the "daddy" of gingerbreads, an old fashioned gingerbread...moist, dark, sticky and intensely rich, hence you have to cut it into slabs rather than small, dainty slices. It's deeply chocolatey too and the addition of chocolate chips makes it full of tiny chocolate nubs. It's topped with a gooey icing of cocoa and ginger ale which tastes better than it sounds.

For a late winter dose of heat and chocolate indulgence, you don't have to look further than this beautiful cake. The recipe can be found here.

The melting pot...

Dark chocolate chips remain crunchy and nubbly when cooked...

Ready to go in the oven...

Just out of the oven, don't worry about the cracks...

Ready for eating...