(Nearly) Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake

It’s a rare and wonderful thing when your male friends not only invite you over for dinner, but only ask you to bring dessert.

We’re going on a few straight weekends of not having to make dinner for ourselves thanks to our honeymoon followed by back to back weddings. Having not been in the kitchen much, I thought I’d try something just a bit more complicated than a box of Betty Crocker, so I resurrected a recipe for a dark chocolate cake served with a side of raspberries and home made whipped cream. If you’ve got an hour and an electric hand mixer, you too can dazzle your friends!

INGREDIENTS

For cake:

1 – 10 oz bag of bittersweet dark chocolate (I used the Ghiradelli chips)
12 tablespoons (a stick and a half) of unsalted butter
5 eggs, separated (put the whites in a bigger bowl for beating.)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of flour

For whipped cream

1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/2 cup crème fraiche (optional but gives final product a sturdier structure)

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350, butter a 9-inch pan or pie plate.
Place the chocolate and the butter in a microwave safe bowl. Melt for 2 minutes and stir until well combined, set aside to cool.

3. Use an electric mixer to beat egg whites until soft peaks form (4-5 minutes on a med/high setting.) Gently sprinkle the flour and sugar over the whites and beat until glossy (about 15 seconds – don’t overbeat!)

4. Mix the egg yolks with the vanilla, add to the cooled chocolate mixture.

The tricky part involves a rubber spatula and some patience with your ‘folding’ technique. First, mix about 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the chocolate to lighten the color. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites until no white streaks remain.

Bake for about 30 minutes until a knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool for 30 minutes before removing from pan. The cake will fall significantly once removed from the oven- fear not, this is supposed to happen!