Chocolate and Almond Cake

It's Imogen's birthday tomorrow and she's celebrating with a Lord of the Rings marathon tonight. I'm not staying for the actual marathon, so I thought I'd better turn up at the start of proceedings - but I've also just come back from a bike ride. So with about two hours to shower, get ready and bake a cake (including cooling time), I decided that now is probably not the time to go and do any zany experiments. So I'm baking a variation on a standard sponge instead.

Chocolate and Almond Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:

• 120g Butter
• 50g Soft brown sugar
• 70g Caster sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp Almond essence
• 1tsp Bicarbonate of soda
• 80g Self-raising flour
• 50g Cocoa powder
• 40g Blanched almonds (there would have been more, but I ran out)
• Dash of milk

For the topping

• 110g Dark chocolate
• 15g Butter
• 2tbsp Water
  
• Blanched almonds to decorate
  

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar together.
2. Beat in the eggs, vanilla essence and almond essence.
3. Sift the bicarbonate of soda, flour and cocoa powder into the mixture and fold in.
4. Let the cake mixture down to dropping consistency with milk.
5. Pour into a lined cake tin and bake at 180C/Gas Mark 4 for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
6. Remove to a wire rack to cool.
7. In a bowl, melt the chocolate, butter and water over a double boiler.
8. Spread over the cooled cake and decorate with almonds. Allow to set.

Here's the cake fresh from the oven:
And here's the finished article:
I think the cake looks quite dense and the chocolate top hasn't set yet, but it's about 25 minutes walk to Imogen's and I'm already late, so I'd better get going...