Flourless Chocolate Cake

A rich gluten-free chocolate cake from The Smitten Kitchen

This is the cake that broke our healthy eating cleanse. It's lightly adapted from a recipe in The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, which was titled "tiny but intense chocolate cake", but since our friends have large appetites, I doubled the recipe to fit in a normal 9" cake pan. It's a flourless cake (making it naturally gluten-free) and has a fudge-like consistency and a deep chocolate flavor. I cooked it the night before I brought it over to our friends' house and it stayed moist with a crispy brownie-like crust. Because it's such a rich cake, it doesn't need any frosting to finish it. I like to add a light dusting of powdered sugar and some fresh raspberries and whipped cream, which keeps it feeling light.

Related Recipes:

- Chocolate Souffles

- Nutella Espresso Mousse
- Orange Chocolate Macaroons

Flourless Chocolate Cake:

• Preheat the oven to 350F, line the bottom of a 9" cake pan with a round of parchment paper, and grease the pan and the paper.
• Melt 12 tbsp. butter in a small pot over medium heat.
• Allow butter to melt, then sizzle and foam, then the foam will subside and nutty brown bits will form at the bottom of the pot.
• Turn the heat off, then whisk in 8 oz. semisweet chocolate until melted and smooth.
• Let chocolate cool until lukewarm.
• Meanwhile, separate 6 eggs and put the yolks in an electric mixer. Reserve the whites.
• Beat the yolks with 2/3 c. brown sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla extract until mixture thickens.
• Stir in the chocolate butter to combine and transfer to a bowl.
• Clean out the mixer and add in the egg whites and a pinch of salt.
• Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form* and then stir in a large pinch of ground cinnamon.
• Stir 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then gently fold n the remaining whites until just combined.
• Pour the batter into the cake pan and place in the oven.
• Cook for 25-30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
• The cake will be puffed to start but will quickly deflate.
• Cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then flip out onto a baking rack and cool to room temperature.
• Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with fresh berries.

Serves six-ten
*Egg whites should be shiny and the peaks should stand straight up after lifting a whisk or spoon out of the mixture.