Phew, it’s been a full on few weeks here. Ada and Kye have tag-teamed being sick, we’ve had colds, ear infections and vomiting. In the middle of that I tried in vain to celebrate my 30th birthday. We managed a cake. Then the south Island of New Zealand got hammered by a earthquake and numerous after shocks, there was flooding in the central North Island and then another earthquake, in the Hawkes Bay area this time. I also made the decision to switch blogging hosts over here to Blogger, so there have been a fare few late nights had by me……see what I mean!!! Phew.
On a more positive note spring has well and truly arrived the past few days, delivering lovely warm nights and sunny days. The kids are all better now and life seems to be getting back to normal, thank god.
So, cake. This one is a lovely flourless chocolate cake, super rich and so easy to make. That being said it does use expensive ingredients, so I usually save it for special occasions………like 30th birthdays 🙂
It’s lovely to eat straight away while still warm, a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top would be lovely (soy ice cream if you don’t do dairy). Or leave it to eat the next day when it turns all dense, rich and fudgey, not unlike my chocolate chilli slice come to think of it. I piled softly whipped cream and frozen raspberries (fresh would be better, or at least defrosted berries-I didn’t have time with sick kids hanging off me) on top but feel free to eat as is, or ice with a ganache icing or simply dust with cocoa powder.
flourless chocolate love cake with raspberries and cream recipe
This cake is gluten-free and to make dairy-free all you need to do is use dairy-free margarine in place of the butter, use a good quality dark dairy-free chocolate ( I use trade aid dark chocolate) and omit the huge pile of whipped cream I served on the top! Instead, simply dust with cocoa powder and serve. Serves about 16 as this is super rich cake, a little goes a long way.
- 1/2 cup (55g) cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup (125ml) hot water
- 1 1/2 cups (300g) muscovado sugar
- 220g butter, roughly chopped
- 200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 1 1/2 cups (165g) almond meal (ground almond)
- 6 eggs, lightly beaten
- softly whipped cream and fresh/frozen raspberries to serve
Preheat oven to 170 C/338 F. Grease a 23cm/9 inch round tin and line the base with baking paper.
Put cocoa into a medium saucepan and slowly whisk in the hot water to form a smooth paste. Add sugar, butter and chocolate. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and set aside for about 15 minutes to cool. Stir in the almond meal and eggs. Pour into tin and bake for about 50-60 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool cake in the tin, or cover and refrigerate until needed, or overnight. To serve, pile softly whipped cream on top layering with raspberries as you go. Cut into thin slices to serve. Would keep for up to 1 week in the fridge but ours barely made it to the second day 🙂
18 Responses
Hi Emm, thanks for your comment on my blog! It has been such a crazy week – my younger sister from Christchurch is staying with me at the moment to get away from all the madness! By the way I love your header pic – what kind of leaves are those? Joe
Wow, your poor sister! I don't blame her wanting to get out of ChCh. Those are beetroot leaves from our garden up there in the header. xx Emm
This looks like a gorgeous cake – will have to try it, especially with raspberries coming in season soon. A dear friend of mine is gluten free so this would make a perfect dessert for our Sunday night dinners!
Oh my goodness! I must make that cake..soon. Does Wednesday count as a special occasion? Thanks for stopping by my blog. I've come across so many great blogs via Shauna's cookbook promotion!
heartbreak pie- I do hope you try it, everyone that ate it at my birthday loved it, and the kids and I are the only gluten-free ones. Winner all round!
Sg- Wednesday totally counts as a special occasion in our house ;-)Thanks for stopping by my blog too
Too yummy!!! I'll definately try this out. I just got an oven… finally. Think I'll christian with this cake.
Sounds like a great idea Chantelle 🙂
I'm not sure I could live without a oven, you must be stoked…mind you I could easily give it up if it meant being able to live in Vietnam!!!
What a huge, lovely & fantastic appetizing chocolate cake this surely is!!
Looks incrdibly tasty!!
MMMMMM,..I also added your lovely blog to my blog's list that I completely digg! Many greetings from a recent gf foodie from Brussels, Belgium!
Hi Sophie, thanks heaps for all your lovely comments 🙂
This cake looks like it belongs in an expensive bakery! You should consider entering your cake into Recipe4Living's 5th Birthday Recipe Contest! The site is turning 5 years old, and we're giving away a Scharffen Berger gift basket to the top birthday cake that's submitted!
Hey – I just made this very delicious cake and blogged about it:
http://toasted-toasted.blogspot.com/2011/03/happy-birthday-to-my-first-babe.html
It was so yummy and so appreciated. Thank you.
You are so welcome Leigh, it looked beautiful 🙂
want make this lovel cake for my son's bday tomorrow…two questions: what type of cocoa powder is best, dutch processed or natural? and what could replace the muscovado sugar, as i can get that here…coconut sugar, cane sugar, panels, etc.? thanks so much for such a beautiful treat.
Hi Mardi,
I'm so sorry I didn't see this earlier (and in time!). I just use regular cocoa powder, not Dutch processed. In place of the muscovado, you can use regular soft brown sugar. Coconut sugar would probably work too x
thanks for your reply. i ended up using the dutch processed kind because i had more of it. and i used a mixture of panela and coconut sugar….it was a success! thanks for a beautiful recipe!
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I’ve used your cake recipe 3x already. 1. with your matcha icing, 2. & 3. with this unusual but lovely Basil Buttercream by The Vanilla Bean Blog. I can’t go back to the regular chocolate anymore. They will never be good enough as your flourless cake.
Could swerve be used for the sugar to make this low carb?
I have no idea what Swerve is!? But I always recommend using natural sugars over processed or artificial. xx