Flourless Chocolate Cake

This is a great chocolate cake! The recipe is from Sophie Dahl’s cook book The Delicious Miss Dahl.

It’s a fllourless chocolate cake so it has a fudgy, moussy texture. The beauty of this cake is that unlike most chocolate based desserts, there is no melting of the chocolate, which can be problematical. You simply process the chocolate with the sugar in the food processor. It seems to be the nearest thing to full proof!

Ingredients
300 gms plain chocolate, broken into pieces
225 gms caster sugar
175 mls boiling water
225 gms salted butter, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
6 free-range eggs, separated
1 tsp instant coffee powder or, alternatively, make a strong espresso and mix a 1/4 cup as part of the boiling water
2 tsp vanilla extract

Method
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C fan forced or 180 degrees C non fan-forced.
For the cake, grease and line the base of a 23cm spring form tin with baking paper.
*NOTE (IS): Line tin, and place tin on baking tray lined with foil, as this cake can leak!

Blend the chocolate and sugar in a food processor until a fine powder forms. Add the boiling water, butter, egg yolks, coffee powder (if using) and vanilla extract and blend until well combined.

In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed, then, using a metal spoon, gently fold into the chocolate mixture.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool in the tin, then transfer to the fridge for 2-3 hours.

For the decoration
Spoon whipped cream over the top of the cake and scatter with mixed berries. You could dust with icing sugar or grate chocolate over the top too.