I have a story to tell you. About a flourless (gluten-free!) chocolate fudge cake.
I baked the cake and everything was awesome. It smelled terrific, was fun to decorate, and slipped out of its baking tin per-fect-ly. Now all we had to do was wait for Shabbos.
And then the phone call came. You know the one. The call from a friend inviting you for a meal, just when you’ve pulled a cake out of the oven, just when your veggie bin is overflowing with ingredients for the meal you thought you were making at home.
No matter. Of course we would go. Buuuuuuuuuut I really couldn’t start baking all over again, just to bring a pareve dessert.
So I sliced my fresh dairy cake into 15 pieces and sent it over for their Shabbos morning kiddush. (They have 10 kids. And the cake is dense, so a sliver is a decent serving.)
Actually, it was 15 slim pieces and one fat one. We had to taste it, too.
Need I tell you that it was delicious? Rich and chocolatey, thick but not too heavy. We loved it. Our hosts loved it.
And everyone lived happily ever after.
Flourless fudge cake
Slightly adapted from The Shiksa in the Kitchen
Yield: 12-16 slices
Ingredients
- cooking spray
- ½ cup unsalted butter (or margarine)
- 250 g (9 oz.) semisweet baking chocolate, chopped
- ¼ cup milk (or soy milk)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
- 5 eggs, at room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar, divided
- 1 cup ground almonds
- powdered sugar, for decoration
- cocoa powder, for decoration
- extra baking chocolate, for decoration
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C. Grease a 9- or 10-inch round baking pan with cooking spray, making sure it is well-greased so the cake comes out easily after baking.
2. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add chocolate and stir until melted. Add milk, vanilla, and salt and stir until fully incorporated. Remove from heat and pour chocolate mixture into a large mixing bowl.
3. Separate the eggs into two medium bowls. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites with ½ cup of sugar until soft peaks form. In the second bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining ¼ cup of sugar until the mixture turns creamy and light yellow.
4. Gently stir the ground almonds and egg yolk mixture into the melted chocolate mixture. Next, fold half of the egg white mixture into the batter, stirring gently and briefly; then fold the rest of the egg white mixture and stir until just combined. The batter should be light and airy from the egg whites, so be careful not to over-mix.
5. Fill the prepared baking pan with the batter, smooth out the surface, and bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool 20 minutes, then slide a knife all the way around the edges of the pan to loosen the cake. Invert it onto a large plate or cutting board and flip it over so the top is facing upwards.
6. Before serving, sprinkle with sifted powdered sugar and cocoa powder and plate each piece with some chocolate shavings (just “peel” a small block of chocolate with a regular vegetable peeler). Serve at room temp or thoroughly chilled.