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• 1kg piece of best beef fillet
• Salt & freshly ground pepper
• 20g butter
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 sprig thyme
• 200g wild mushrooms, cleaned & finely chopped
• 1 tsp truffle oil
• Small pinch of chopped parsley
• 1 savoy cabbage
• 200g foie gras (optional)
• 500g block of all-butter puff pastry
• 1 egg, to glaze

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Method

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Season the fillet well. Heat a large pan. Once hot, quickly brown the beef on all sides, remove from the pan onto a plate to cool & once cooled, put in the fridge to chill.

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Melt the butter in a small pan & add the crushed garlic & thyme, followed by the finely chopped mushrooms. Fry until lightly browned & most of the moisture has been driven off then season, stir in the truffle oil & parsley & set aside to chill.

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Pull off the large outer leaves of the cabbage & cut out the thick middle stem. Blanch in boiling water for two minutes, then remove & plunge into cold water. Drain, squeeze out the excess moisture & lay them out on the work top, overlapping so they are big enough to wrap the fillet. Spread the mushrooms over the middle. If using foie gras, slice it & lay it on top of the mushrooms. Top with the fillet & wrap the leaves around it, making sure there are no gaps (to keep the juices away from the pastry). Place in the fridge to firm up.

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Roll the pastry into a rectangle large enough to cover the whole fillet. Place the cabbage-wrapped fillet in the middle and wrap one side of the pastry right over so it meets the other side. Crimp the pastry edges all round & pop in the fridge for at least 20 minutes to set the pastry. Then beat the egg with a pinch of salt & brush all over to glaze the pastry.

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Heat the oven to 200°C. Heat up a large baking tray then place the Wellington directly on top of it (this stops it getting a soggy bottom!). The pastry will take around 30 minutes to cook. For a rare Wellington – cook for around 40 minutes, turning the oven down to 180°C after 20 minutes to prevent the pastry from burning. If you like it well done, add 20 minutes to the cooking time.

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Let the Wellington rest somewhere warm for 15 minutes before slicing & serving.

IngredientsÌýÌý

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For the cake:

• 50g best-quality cocoa powder, sifted
• 100g dark brown muscovado sugar
• 250ml boiling water
• 125g soft unsalted butter (plus some for greasing)
• 150g caster sugar
• 225g plain flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs

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For the frosting:

• 125ml water
• 30g dark brown muscovado sugar
• 175g unsalted butter, cubed
• 300g best-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped

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Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line the bottoms of two 20cm round sandwich tins with baking parchment and butter the sides.

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Put the cocoa and dark muscovado sugar into a large bowl and pour in the boiling water. Whisk to mix, then set aside.

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Cream the butter and caster sugar together until pale and fluffy. Stir the flour, baking powder and bicarb together in another bowl, and set aside.

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Add the vanilla extract into the creamed butter and sugar while mixing, then add in 1 egg, quickly followed by a spoonful of the flour mixture, then the second egg.

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Keep mixing and incorporate the rest of the dried ingredients for the cake, then finally mix and fold in all the cocoa mixture.

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Divide the chocolatey mixture between the 2 prepared tins and put in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

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When cooked, remove the tins from the oven and leave them on a wire rack for 5–10 minutes, before turning the cakes out to cool.

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For the frosting: put the water, muscovado sugar and butter in a pan over a low heat to melt. When this mixture begins to bubble, take the pan off the heat and add the chopped chocolate, swirling the pan so that the chocolate melts evenly, then leave for a minute to fully melt before whisking till smooth and glossy. Leave for about 1 hour, whisking now and again until the cakes are ready for the frosting.

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Set one of the cooled cakes, with its top side down, on a cake stand or plate, and spread with about a third of the frosting, then top that with the second cake, regular way up, and spread the remaining frosting over the top and sides.