The bells are jingling and we at CS Catering are starting to feel all festive!

Not only do we endeavour to bring you the best quality catering equipment for your money (see our Christmas deals) we also want to inspire you with some fantastic recipes.

Chestnuts are a seasonal must have but they sometimes find themselves relegated to a bowl and left on a table somewhere, looking a little boring and unloved.

This gorgeous chocolate cake recipe shoots them back into the spotlight and the fact that it is a flour free recipe means any family members with gluten allergies can also tuck right in.

 Ingredients:

• 225g good quality dark chocolate
• 6 eggs
• 1 pinch of salt
• 125g unsalted butter
• 435g chestnut puree (we advise a covered blender or processor, stick blenders may struggle and will be messy!)
• 2 table spoons of rum (dark or spiced)
• 65g granulated sugar
• Whipped cream to decorate
• 1 chestnut to decorate

 To prepare, preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, gas mark 4 and grease up your cake tin.

In a bowl in the microwave or in an a bain-marie break up your dark chocolate and melt, allowing time for all the lumps dissolve but not too long that it starts to burn.

With your 6 eggs, separate the whites from the yolks in to two separate bowls.

Whisk the whites with a pinch of salt until stiff.

In the yolk bowl, add in the chestnut puree (don’t worry about the occasional chestnut lump it will add texture) and the sugar then beat in the butter until the mixture is smooth. Fold in your rum and then the melted chocolate.

Stir in a dollop of egg whites and whisk well to mix everything together and then carefully fold in the rest of the egg whites to your chocolate/chestnut batter.

Pour the entire mixture into the cake tin and bake for 40 to 60 minutes (depending on the depth of your cake tin.)

Let the cake cool once you have removed it from the oven and decorate with whipped cream and slices of chestnut.