For the past few years in celebration of Black History Month, Meiko (Meiko and the Dish) and Aaron (The Hungry Hutch) have coordinated a virtual potluck, where 28 Black food bloggers contribute original recipes from the vast African diaspora. This year, our podcast's bringing a few dishes to the table—listen in and cook along with us.

On Play Me a Recipe, your favorite cooks will walk you through their most treasured recipes, offering all the insider tips, stories, and tricks you won't get from a written recipe—and you'll be right alongside them, every step of the way. Feel free to pause, jump back, or navigate the steps via the podcast chapters.

If you're cooking along, here's the recipe we're making today. Go ahead and grab the ingredients below (Kristen starts listing them at 2:49) before starting the episode.

Hot Chocolate & Halva Pudding

• 1 cup (125 grams) all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup (150 grams) light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup (20 grams) cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon flaky salt
• 1/2 c up (120ml) milk
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup (80 grams) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (150 grams) roughly chopped plain or vanilla halva
• 1/2 cup (75 grams) dark chocolate chips, or roughly chopped chocolate
• 4 tablespoons (75 grams) cocoa powder
• 2/3 cup (150 grams) light brown sugar
• 1 cup (250 ml) boiling water
• 1 teaspoon espresso powder
• Tahini (optional), for swirl

1. To make the cake, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa powder, and salt to a large bowl and whisk to break up any lumps. In a medium bowl, combine the milk, egg, butter and vanilla and pour this into the flour mixture. Stir until the batter is smooth and without large lumps. Gently fold in the chopped halva and chocolate chips before pouring the batter into the prepared dish. Set aside.
2. To make the sauce, add the cocoa powder, sugar, boiling water, and espresso powder to a medium bowl and stir together with a fork, removing any lumps. Pour the liquid carefully on top of the cake batter -- it will look very strange at his point, but don’t worry or try to mix it in. Bake for 28 to 35 minutes, or until the cake is puffy and just set. There’ll be a pool of chocolate sauce underneath once you break the crust. Serve hot.

Is there a recipe you'd like to hear us make? Tell us all about it at podcasts@food52.com!

Lobby Time Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/