■ Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 26cm round cake tin and line with baking paper.

■ Melt the butter, either in a bowl in the microwave or in a bowl over a saucepan of water brought to the boil then removed from the heat. Pour into a mixing bowl and add the castor sugar. Beat together until creamy.

■ Beat the egg yolks with a fork and add to the butter and sugar. Melt the chocolate, as per the butter, and pour into the butter, sugar and egg mix. Add the almond meal and mix well.

■ In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until slightly stiff peaks form. Take a quarter of the egg whites and fold into the chocolate mix until completely incorporated. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites a third of the mix at a time.

■ Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake 50-60 minutes or until done. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out cleanly, or with just a small amount of mix clinging to it.

■ Leave to cool before removing from the tin.

■ Decorate the centre of the cake with raspberries and dust with a little icing sugar.

■ Serve with double cream and fresh berries.

** Read Richard Cornish's chocolate cake story here.