Neil Perry's comfort food: Minestrone soup and chocolate cake

Falling temperatures refocus attention on traditional pleasures - think slow-cooked, filling soups and decadent chocolate desserts.

CHOCOLATE CAKE

125g butter, softened

220g caster sugar

155g dark chocolate

125g egg yolks (7 yolks)

1 tsp vanilla extract

185g egg whites (6 whites)

125g cake flour

¼ cup apricot jam

fresh raspberries, to serve

For the chocolate ganache

320g dark chocolate, finely chopped

400g pouring cream

40g glucose

70g butter, at room temperature

for the sugar syrup

1/4 cup castor sugar

Makes one 20cm cake, serves 10-12

Preheat oven to 160ºC. Grease a deep 20cm round cake pan and line the base and sides with baking paper. Beat the butter and 125g caster sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and add to the butter mixture with the yolks and vanilla extract. Stir to combine.

Place the egg whites into a mixer bowl and beat at medium speed, adding the remaining caster sugar slowly until soft peaks form. Then fold in the chocolate mixture, alternating with the sifted flour.

Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for about 60-75 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the centre emerges clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 30 minutes before removing.

To make the ganache, put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Put the cream and glucose into a pan and heat until boiling, then pour over the chocolate and let sit for 1 minute until melted. Add the butter and stir until combined.

Place half the ganache in the fridge for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Keep the other half at room temperature.

To make the sugar syrup, put ¼ cup of water in a pan, add the sugar and bring to a boil.

Cut the cake in half horizontally and brush the top of the lower half with syrup and cover with the apricot jam. Put the two halves of the cake back together.

Use the ganache from the fridge to cover the whole cake and place back in the fridge for 20 minutes. Then pour the room-temperature ganache over the cake. Serve with fresh raspberries.

• More great soup recipes

MINESTRONE SOUP

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

60g smoky bacon, finely diced

1 large red onion, finely diced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 leek, white part only, washed and diced

4 celery stalks, finely diced

2 carrots, peeled and finely diced

1 tsp sea salt

2 tbsp tomato paste

25g shredded silverbeet, leaves and stalks

400g can chopped tomatoes

1 fresh bay leaf

2 flat-leaf parsley sprigs, leaves removed and roughly chopped

1 litre chicken stock

100g cannellini beans, cooked

100g chickpeas, cooked

1 cup orzo pasta, cooked

freshly ground pepper

parmesan, to serve

Serves 4

Heat the oil on medium-low in a deep heavy-based pan and sweat the smoky bacon until it releases its fat. Add the onion, garlic, leek, celery, carrot and salt and sweat over low heat for 8 minutes, without colouring. Add tomato paste and silverbeet and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.

Add the canned tomatoes, bay leaf, parsley and stock. Bring to the boil and gently simmer for 1 hour. Add the cooked cannellini beans, chickpeas and pasta for a further 3 minutes to heat through.

Check the seasoning, adding more salt, if necessary, and freshly ground pepper.

Remove the bay leaf before serving. Spoon the soup into four bowls and add a fresh grind of pepper and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil to each. Serve with freshly grated parmesan.

HOT TIPS

* The cake is very much like a mud cake. Serve with whipped cream or a raspberry sauce - or both.

* This soup is super quick to make as the legumes are already cooked.

* A great addition for the soup is pesto or thinly sliced prosciutto folded through.

* Another serving option is crusty bread rubbed with garlic, sea salt and lashings of extra virgin olive oil.

SOMETHING TO DRINK

Cabernet merlot

A cool-climate wine, such as this 2008 Crawford River cabernet merlot ($24) from Victoria, brings out the subtle herbal elements of the soup, with its overtones of ripe blackberries and red fruit. It's also a perfect match for chocolate.

Photography by William Meppem. Styling by Hannah Meppem. Food preparation by Nick Banbury.