Miss Dahl's Flourless Chocolate Cake

Hmmmm, well ... not really sure what to say about this one exactly.  It is a rare thing to come across a chocolate cake that I actually dislike.  Particularly one of the flourless sort that is made with nice quality chocolate.  However, this one ... well.  Maybe you should try it and get back to me.

Emilia and I made it last week, after we stocked up on Green & Black's chocolate from the store (Sophie refers to this chocolate elsewhere in the book, so I figured we may as well try it here.)  And after dinner that night I pulled it out of the fridge, whipped some cream, rinsed some raspberries, and served it up.  (She suggests crème fraiche, but I opted for sweetened cream).  Anyway, Emilia ate the raspberries and cream, Michael (being the dear that he is) ate his whole slice, while managing to agree that it was clearly not one of the best attempts at a chocolate cake.  And then he went on to say that maybe I should write a letter to Sophie voicing my complaints.  He suggested writing something like this:

'Dear Hot Dame (his words, not mine), Maybe your wee-one liked this cake...' 

By 'wee-one' he is actually referring to Jamie Cullum, which is rather funny, really, as the two of them are probably the same height.  Oh, and as a side-note, my wee-one (and Emilia) just got us tickets (for Mother's Day, wasn't that nice?) to go see Sophie's wee-one in concert this summer at Chateau Ste. Michelle.  I'm most excited as he is rather fabulous, is he not?

Anyway, I'm not giving up on this cookbook yet, despite the fact that literally every single recipe I've done has required tweaking of sorts.  The recipes do still look good.  In the meantime, I tossed the rest of the cake out yesterday (which was painful) but I simply could not bring myself to have any more.  And then Emilia and I pulled out her beautiful new apron and made cupcakes, which you will hear all about later, I'm sure.

Flourless Chocolate Cake
Butter for greasing
2 cups broken semi-sweet chocolate (or 1 cup each dark and milk chocolate), plus extra to decorate
1 cup super-fine sugar
¾ cup boiling water
2 sticks salted butter, cut into cubes
6 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon instant coffee (I omitted this on account of our 2-year-old)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

To top the cake
1 cup raspberries
1 cup strawberries, hulled and quartered
7 oz. tub of crème fraiche

Butter and line a parchment pan, then preheat the oven to 350°.

In your food processor, pulse the chocolate and sugar until well combined and fine.  Add the boiling water, butter, egg yolks, coffee, and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg-whites to stiff peaks, then add them to the food processor.  Blend 10 seconds or so.  Pour the mixture into your prepared pan and place in the oven for 45-55 minutes.  The top will be nicely cracked when it ready to come out.

As the cake cools, it will sink down a bit, creating a nice place to put your berries and crème fraiche.  However, before you get to that, it needs to cool completely, and then placed in the fridge for a few hours. (Recipe from: Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights by Sophie Dahl.  Harper Collins, 2009.)