The Case for Chocolate Cake

I have to admit, I myself am not a huge fan of baking cakes. They seem to be something I always manage to mess up. I can never get the baking time right, or it deflates when I get it out of the oven, and don’t even get me started on the icing! I admire those people who love making extravagant cakes, and I wish I was one of them, but I just can’t bring myself to take these on. When I think about getting started on a three layer cake with buttercream icing and a mountain of toppings, I can’t bring myself to actually execute it. It’s not like I don’t want to, it’s just something about the whole process that seems a little overwhelming and unachievable. So kudos to all those bakers out there that love making these amazing cakes. Perhaps I need to just force myself to make those cakes I have saved on my Pinterest to get over my fear of triple layers and complexity.

When you are scared of these cakes though and a birthday comes around, you tend to get pretty creative with what you can make. And there are plenty of amazing cakes out there that I sometimes enjoy more than something really decadent. You just need to search a little harder, but I assure you that when you do you will find cakes that are just as tasty that won’t mean that you’re in the kitchen for 10 hours.

I don’t know if there is anything much better in life than a delicious chocolate cake. I guess I am a bit of a chocoholic, so I can’t really talk. I also really like cake too, so I really can’t talk. But I feel that there is something about a really good chocolate cake recipe that is really satisfying. When it is a good recipe, you don’t even need buttercream or any other icing over the top, the cake speaks for itself.

This recipe I found because I was looking for a cake to make for my managers birthday. The problem with this is that she tends to like everything, so the sky was truly the limit. But I stumbled across an amazing looking chocolate cake recipe that looked super rich and delicious, everything you want a chocolate cake to be, and I figured that would be the winner.

This cake was equally decadent and subtle. It didn’t leave you feeling sick after eating it, which I find I feel sometimes when I have something really rich. It had enough dark chocolate in it that the bitterness perfectly balanced the sweetness from the other ingredients, and made for a truly delicious birthday cake. The best part was it is a cake you could really use for any occasion, and was relatively quick and easy to whip up.

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Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

55 mins

Total Time

1 hr 15 mins

 

Servings: 1 Cake

Author: Ella Eats

Ingredients

• 170 grams of unsalted butter cubed
• 340 grams of good quality dark cooking chocolate roughly chopped
• 6 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract
• ¼ cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• ¾ teaspoon salt fine sea salt
• 1 cup of caster sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a cake tin and set aside.
2. In a small saucepan over a medium heat, combine the butter and chocolate, stirring constantly, until completely melted. Whisk to combine completely, remove from the heat and set aside.
3. Separate 4 of the 6 eggs, and place the egg whites in a medium sized bowl and the egg yolks in a separate bowl. To the yolks, add the vanilla extract, cocoa powder, salt, the remaining 2 eggs and half of the sugar, whisking well to combine.
4. Slowly add the cooled chocolate mixture into the yolk mixture, whisking well, and set aside once combined completely.
5. Use an electric whisk on a medium to high speed to beat the egg whites until light and frothy. Gradually add the remaining sugar and beat until the mixture has firm peaks and goes glossy.
6. Carefully fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, folding with a spatula until just incorporated. Pour the batter into the pre prepared cake tin and smooth the top with a spatula.
7. Place in the oven and bake until the top is slightly cracked, and the middle no longer moves – around 50-55 minutes. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
8. Dust the cake with cocoa powder and top with your desired topping. I placed little fudge pieces on the top along with chocolate covered espresso beans. You could put berries on the top, icing sugar or whipped cream, depending on your preference.

This cake is so easy to make, and beside the cooking time is quite quick. I am a sucker for a recipe where you don’t have to cream butter, so the fact that this one calls for just melting it with the chocolate makes it a winner in my book. Plus it’s gluten free, which means that you didn’t feel heavy after eating it, and you can make it for those who can’t eat flour!

This cake was absolutely delicious, and the perfect amount of richness. It was almost like a chocolate brownie, but I think the addition of the egg whites made it really light and fluffy. I love how versatile this recipe was as well in that you could really add whatever topping you wanted, or just serve it on its own with some icing sugar or cocoa powder dusted over the top. You could also serve it with cream for a truly decadent experience!

My manager loved this cake and it was a hit around the office. I even got asked for the recipe a few times which certainly told me that it was a hit! Sometimes those cakes that are quite simple are the ones that people really enjoy, and I think sometimes you get more takers with something that isn’t 3 metres high because it doesn’t seem like such a mission to eat!

All in all, this recipe was a winner, and perfect for any occasion. You could whip it up for a birthday and cover it with delicious toppings (highly recommend the little fudge pieces, they were delicious), or for a simple afternoon tea treat! I feel like this cake might have started turning me around to baking cakes. If I can bake something this delicious with such simple ingredients and easily, what’s to stop me from taking over the cake world? Maybe one day I’ll try making some of the hectic cakes on Pinterest, but until then, I’ve got this amazing flourless chocolate cake to make time and time again!

Until next time, happy eating!

Ella xx