flourless chocolate cake {pudding on a plate}

 

Yum.   

I should have a worthy photo or ten of our desserts from last week’s banquet, but I don’t…

so, here’s what we attempted to look like…

except we had to skip the fresh raspberries, and we had whipped cream not white chocolate mousse

{Photo credit:  Judy}

Pretty, yes?  Delicious, yes!

Pretty delicious.

The recipe I used actually came from food52.com  {Judy’s above has beans in it to replace the flour}, but I also took some hints from allrecipes, epicurious, and Mel’s Kitchen Cafe.  Hard work, this business.

Recipe contributor “TasteFood” says: This luscious chocolate cake is made without flour, resulting in a rich truffle-like torte. The key to its intensity and flavor lies in the quality of the few ingredients. Choose a high quality dark chocolate (I prefer Lindt 70%) and use a European-style butter, such as Plugra or Lurpak. The brightness and acidity of the raspberry coulis balances the richness of the cake, while cooling whipped cream smooths out the flavors, allowing you to come back for more.

 

Methods & Ingredients:

1 cup butter

2 cups (12 oz) Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate chips

1 cup sugar

6 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Butter a 9” spring form pan.  Line bottom with buttered parchment paper.  Dust pan with Dutch process unsweetened cocoa powder (or other unsweetened cocoa powder).

Melt butter over low heat in small saucepan.  Turn off heat and add chocolate; stir to melt; return to very low heat if needed to melt chocolate.  (This method replaces the need for a double boiler  :)  so work it carefully.)

Whisk sugar and eggs together in large bowl (First sample cake I whisked ingredients by hand; the cakes for the banquet I used my KitchenAid stand mixer with whisk attachment).  Stir in vanilla.  Add lukewarm chocolate mixture and stir, combining well.

Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake until set and top begins to crack, about 45-50 minutes.  (Center will still be moist.  Cake will rise while baking, then fall as it cools.)  Cool pan on rack until easily handled to remove side.  Transfer cake to cooling rack until completely cool (remove bottom of pan and parchment paper).  Transfer to serving plate, or store tightly covered in the fridge for up to a week.

Serve with small amount of raspberry sauce and whipped cream.  Cake serves 12.

Sweetened, real whipped cream

Raspberry Sauce:  Heat 12 oz of frozen unsweetened raspberries on low to medium heat in saucepan; add 1/2 cup of sugar; heat gently and stir to dissolve sugar (and smoosh raspberries).  I use a stick blender to puree the sauce.

{Option: Press raspberry sauce through a fine-meshed sieve to separate seeds from coulis; discard seeds.} 

Freeze leftover sauce if not used within the week.  This makes enough sauce for 36-48 servings possibly (-?- I didn’t actually do the math on this.  And my brain is still slightly on overload…)

The raspberry sauce is very tasty with lemon pound cake too  :D

fyi, we noticed the texture of the chilled cake to be much more like a cheese cake.  {didn’t notice that when we served the first cake at home without chilling}

 

Special kudos and thanks to Angela for the loan of her T-fal springfrom pan (above on the right) –> very nice to use!  Interesting difference in appearance between the cakes from the diff pans too.  (our pan is a Norpro)