Hey there!
I have finally gotten around to making a cake that has been intriguing me for quite a while!
Lately I have been seeing quite a few recipes for “flourless chocolate cake” and have wondered just how that works and how it compares to a usual cake.
The only problem was what substitutes the flour.
Eggs.
You might have noticed a lot of my recipes don’t call for eggs, especially my baked items.
I don’t have an egg allergy or intolerance, nor does anyone in my household.
The thing is, as a pedestrian, armed with only a large rucksack and some back power, the poor eggs in question might not survive the journey.
Sigh, if only I had a comfy upholstered seat complete with cup holder, radio and comfortable recline to house them.
This week though I saw an offer I couldn’t refuse on eggs.
Happy Eggs (a very lovely free range egg brand) from almost £4 for 12 down to £1.40 because they needed to be sold, not one broken.
Their sell by date was a week before their best before date!
Strangely enough the first thing I thought of doing with the eggs was this recipe so we picked up some dark chocolate, something I remembered being part of this cake!
This recipe isn’t hard but I will say it is the hardest cake I have ever made in the fact that it isn’t just a “put everything into this bowl and stir” recipe.
There are three mixtures that need to be prepared before the “put everything in this bowl and stir” stage, so it’s great if baking doesn’t involve enough cooking for you.
The recipe called for 70% cocoa solid dark chocolate, great quality stuff, but I found that cheap basic dark chocolate worked just as well and on the whole might have been preferred to the richness of quality dark chocolate, though if you love it, use it!
Just serve it will some cream!
Similarly I dusted my cake with cocoa powder.
Naively I thought that because a pretentious picture in a book did the same with this cake that it would taste nice.
I have to be honest, as pretty as it may look, unless you are a big fan of the sour notes of cocoa powder leave this cake plain.
Lastly, this cake is kind of like a Soufflé in the fact that when it comes out of the oven it looks puffed up and perfect though will deflate over the cooling time.
Don’t panic or worry, it’s supposed to be like that!
This cake is an enigma in quite a few ways really. Despite the fact that a lot of it is made from melted chocolate, it is actually lower in calories than other cakes coming in at 271 calories a slice using marg (this cake serves 4 pieces, great for a small household when you just fancy some cake!).
Another thing that makes it strange in my mind is that, again despite the chocolate, it was rich but also light at the same time.
I expected the texture to be fudgey, chewy and dense!
Enjoy!
Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake
Serves 4 generous slices
Ingredients
4 eggs (4 egg whites, 2 egg yolks)
40g caster sugar
125g dark chocolate broken into pieces
30g unsalted butter or margarine, plus extra for greasing
Method
Grease a 7 inch square tin with butter then line with baking paper, paper overhanging so the cake can be lifted out later.
Preheat an oven to 180oc (160oc fan oven).
Bring a medium sized saucepan of water to a simmer and place a heat safe bowl over it (Ban Marie).
Place in the egg yolks and half of the caster sugar and whisk until the mixture is pale and thick, like thick ribbons when falling from a spoon, set aside.
Place a second bowl on the heat and put in the butter and chocolate, melting until smooth. Set aside.
Next, place the egg whites and the remaining sugar in a very clean bowl and whisk them (preferable with an electric whisk or mixer) until they form peaks that stand up on the end of your whisk (stiff peaks).
Stir the yolk mixture into the chocolate mixture in a large bowl then fold in the egg whites until combined.
Pour into the prepared tin and cook for 12 minutes.
When done, leave the cake to rest in the tin for 10 minutes then carefully lift it out.
Leave it to cool completely on a wire rack then serve with some cream on the side!
