BERRY season is officially upon us and what better way to get your fruity fix than with a raspberry torte, writes Hannah Bryan.

This recipe is adapted from the BBC Good Food website and it is far less rich than it sounds. The raspberries add a wonderful fruity flavour throughout while the Tia Maria just gives it that extra kick and sets it aside from a regular torte.

Ingredients

225g dark chocolate (I used 80 per cent)
175g butter
3 tbsp plain flour
2 tsp Tia Maria
5 eggs
20 fresh raspberries plus more for decoration
100g crushed nuts (I used almonds)
140g caster sugar

For the glaze :
140g dark chocolate
100ml double cream
100ml Tia Maria
Icing sugar to dust

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 140C and line two cake tins with baking paper.

First, melt the chocolate and butter together in the microwave for about 40 seconds at a time to make sure that it doesn’t burn. Leave it to cool before stirring in the Tia Maria.

In a separate bowl mix the nuts and the flour. Whisk the eggs before gradually adding the sugar and whisking for another minute. Carefully fold in the chocolate mixture and then gradually fold in the flour. Don’t worry if the mixture looks quite runny at this point.

Divide the mixture equally between the two cake tins and bake for about 15 minutes and then leave to cool. The sponges should be slightly undercooked in the middle.

Mash up the raspberries and then spread on to the base of one of the cakes before putting the other one on top. To make the glaze, bring the cream to the boil and melt the chocolate in the microwave.

Pour the cream in to the chocolate mixture along with the Tia Maria and stir until smooth. After a few minutes the mixture should start to thicken up and once it does you can spread it over the top and sides of the torte.

Once the chocolate and cream mixture is on, put the torte into the fridge and leave to cool for about 24 hours. Before serving, decorate it with the remaining raspberries and a sprinkle of icing sugar.