Chocolate Decadence – Flourless Chocolate Cake

It seems I tend to blog when there’s a hockey game on. It’s “Hockey Night in Canada” on CBC and we are watching the Canucks at 1-1 against the Flames going into the second intermission. We have clinched our division and Calgary is desperately trying to gain a playoff spot. (The Western Conference is tight this year – at least for the bottom 2/3. We are 20 points ahead of most of the teams.) It’s currently Earth Hour but we can’t turn the game off. That just won’t do on HNIC – and I say this very seriously.

Anyhow. The other night we went to dinner at my friend Katie and her boyfriend Tom’s place. Because of Sean’s schedule in winter/spring it’s very rare that we get to to things like this pre-summer so I was very excited to get us out of the house for Sean to meet Katie and Tom.

Katie made a delicious boeuf bourguignon with roast potatoes and a lovely spinach and quinoa salad. When she told me what she was making, I told her I would make chocolate cake for dessert.

With Easter around the corner, chocolate is on my mind. And so flourless chocolate cake was baked for this dinner. The first time I made this cake was for our 4th “Together” Anniversary/Valentine’s Day. The only thing that went wrong is that I didn’t oil the baking pan enough which in combination with flipping the cake out about two minutes too early… The cake broke in half. Sigh.

This time around, I remedied the pan situation and set a timer for the flipping. And my cake turned out perfect.

The thing about flourless chocolate cake is That it’s very dense and fairly flat. Really rich and tasty but because there’s no flour (read: no yeast), the cake doesn’t get much bigger during the baking process. It just sets. So if you are set on a fluffy chocolate cake, this is not for you. If you can get past the unfluffiness, you will LOVE this cake.

FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE
(Adapted from a recipe I found on Epicurious)

Yield: Makes one 8-inch cake

Ingredients

• 4 ounces fine-quality bittersweet/semi-sweet dark chocolate (equates to 4 squares of Bakers chocolate)
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter (I have to admit that I don’t always have unsalted butter on hand and the cake turns out just fine)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder plus additional for sprinkling

Method

Preheat oven to 375°F and butter an 8-inch round or square baking pan. Optional: Line bottom with wax paper and butter paper. (If you have just bought a kitchen scale like I had the first time I made this cake, weigh your chocolate so you are making use of your purchase. 😉 )

Chop chocolate into small pieces.

In a double boiler or metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water melt chocolate with butter, stirring, until smooth.

Remove top of double boiler or bowl from heat and whisk sugar into chocolate mixture.

Add eggs and whisk well.

Sift (or be a rebel like me and just pour it in) 1/2 cup cocoa powder over chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined.

Pour batter into pan and bake in middle of oven 25 minutes, or until top has formed a thin crust.

Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes and invert onto a serving plate.

Dust cake with additional cocoa powder and serve with sorbet (if desired) or with fresh raspberries and drizzle with a raspberry coulis (4 tbsp raspberry jam,1 tbsp water – microwave 30 sec, whisk with a fork, drizzle and enjoy!).

This cake keeps, after being cooled completely, in an airtight container, for one week. We left the last half of the cake with Katie and Tom. I was informed that it didn’t last a week. It lasted 24 hours before it was gobbled for the next night’s dessert. A lovely compliment to my baking and a perfect example that chocolate makes the world a better place.

We are now down 2-1 in the third, but I think we can bring it back around.

Have a great weekend!