Ever since I started making my Decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake, I have made it every week, tweaking the recipe every time and experimenting.
This delicious, addictive chocolate cake is free from flour, gluten and baking powder. Ground cashew and pecan nuts replace the flour, and whisked eggs make it rise. I also used a smaller cake tin to give the cake slightly more height. It worked beautifully!
After it came out of the oven, we gave it time to get to room temperature and made our white chocolate ganache. We gave it fifteen minutes to cool down a little before covering the top of the cake.
The children and I wanted to decorate our cake and have a bit of fun in the kitchen. I had beautiful visions of a cookie monster cake. Well, I had seen lots of really pretty cookie monster cakes on Pinterest, but as usual, although I was inspired by the photos, I did not even look at the method or tutorials.
I love cake. I have no patience for decorating it, spending hours looking at it or taking millions of photos of it. All I can think of when it comes out of the oven is how long it will take to cool down enough so I can have a couple of slices with a cup of tea or coffee.
If for some crazy reason you want to reproduce this monstrosity, we used blue and black food colouring in our ganache, a marshmallow cut in two and an Oreo biscuit (contains wheat).
Something to make you smile:
Hello Pinfail! (Credit: Pinterest)
I am sure you will all agree our cake qualifies as baking something funny for Red Nose Day (13 March 2015).
Are you taking part in the Great Comic Relief Bake Off?
Really Nutty Flourless Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cup dark chocolate 200g, chopped
- 2/3 cup butter 150g
- 5 medium free-range eggs
- 1 cup dark brown muscovado sugar 170g
- Pinch of salt
- ½ cup pecan nuts 75g
- ½ cup cashew nuts 75g
Chocolate Ganache:
- 1 cup good-quality white chocolate 150g, grated or finely chopped in a blender
- 1/3 cup full-fat double cream 80 ml
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to gas mark 4 (180 degrees Celsius / 350 degrees Fahrenheit), grease and line the bottom of an 18cm round cake tin with greased baking paper.
- Chop the dark chocolate. In a small pan, gently melt the butter and chocolate over a medium heat, stirring until smooth and silky. Leave the mixture to cool for ten minutes.
- Separate the eggs. Mix the egg yolks and sugar vigorously until you reach a pale creamy consistency.
- In the other bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks start to form.
- Blend the nuts and add them to the egg and sugar mixture, together with the melted chocolate and butter. Mix well.
- Using a spatula, fold in the egg whites carefully.
- Pour the mixture into the lined cake tin and place on the middle shelf of the oven for fifty-five minutes. It should be firm to the touch, and the blade of a knife inserted in the middle should come out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and leave it to cool for fifteen minutes then turn it onto a wire rack.
- Grate the chocolate or give it a minute in a blender to make sure it is chopped as finely as it can be and reserve in a large bowl.
- Place the cream and vanilla extract in a small pan over a medium heat. Bring to the boil.
- Pour the hot cream over the chocolate, and whisk, starting at the centre of the bowl and gradually stirring it all together until smooth and silky.
- Once the ganache is at room temperature, you can ice your cake. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
Once cool, the cake will keep well in an airtight container for up to three days.
Mmmm il a l’air bon ce gâteau et en plus il est drôle. J’imagine que les enfant on passé un bon moment en le réalisant. Elle est génial ton initiative de la Red nose !
Il est délicieux, fondant, moelleux… un vrai bonheur!
You had me at “nutty”…..this looks incredible! I have tried quite a few flour less chocolate cakes in my time because one of my good friends is gluten free. None have been quite what I was after so I’m going to try this one next time she’s around! 🙂
Let me know what you think after you have tried it!
I do love a good pin fail! Still looks delish!
Me too! Things look so pretty and perfect on Pinterest… and then there’s homemade stuff by people like us!
Hey, forget Pinterest, I like what you did with the cake. Plus, it’s worlds better than I would do with Cookie Monster, at least you can tell that’s what your character is. Mine would probably look like the trash around Oscar the Grouch’s can! Love the flourless recipe, looks wonderful! #brilliantblogposts
At least you can definitely tell the children helped! Mind you, I would probably not have done much better on my own!
This looks delicious and it doesn’t help that I’m starving right now. I’ll never say no to chocolate cake!
Same here. Chocolate cake rocks. Wait… CAKE rocks!
I love this post so much Mel! I LOVE your cake, the comparison photo made me chuckle. It’s so easy (and dangerous) to compare life to Pinterest isn’t it? If it was fun and tastes good, that’s what matters isn’t it? Thanks so much for the mention! Very flattered xxx
It is only after I saved the photos on my computer and looked at the best one alongside the Pinterest one that I realised just how dreadful our cake looked… but we did not care: it tasted yummy!
This made me smile – and that was before I saw the pinfail comparison – hardly a failure I’d say, and I bet it tastes fab. I think yours has more character than the other one too! #wotw
Not pretty, but it tasted delicious!
You’ve done it again with a chocolate cake. My mouth is drooling…and I can’t eat cake at the moment. Ahhhhhh!!!!!
You could make it for the kids! xxx
I like to see a Pinterest fail shot, always makes me smile! I think it’d still taste absolutely gorgeous, though 🙂 Thanks for sharing with #WotW
It tasted incredible. Replacing flour with nuts is just brilliant!
Ahh stuff Pinterest….That still looks so delicious x
Awww, thanks Kim. You know what? It doesn’t look good, but it tastes scrumptious!
Your cake looks yummy! I had to chuckle at your pinterest comparison, i bet it tastes better than the “perfect pinterst” one!
I would not blame you on that one, Nicola! I did laugh myself at how bad it looked… and we really tried our best. Cake decorators we are not! (understatement of the year!)
I don’t think I’ve been described as someone’s “cake idol” before *huge grin*
I think the only problem with your cake is that you seem to be feeding the Cookie Monster something like an Oreo. I’m pretty sure he tends to go for chocolate chip cookies!
Your cake recipe sounds delicious.
Oh Charlotte, you are too kind… or you really need to see an optician!
Utterly amazing, I knew you were a creative genius but wow! Love this, thanks for linking up x
Do I detect a hint of sarcasm here, ma belle?
I like yours WAY better than that Pinterest one! 🙂 xxx
Mwah! Shall I start a cake decorating business or keep my day job?
Cake is a fantastic Word of the Week! This cake looks and sounds divine x #WotW
It tasted amazing despite the odd ‘cookie monster’!
Yours has far more personality! Cake is indeed a marvellous word 🙂
I have baked using nuts as my base and they are so good so I know how yummy this one is! #wotw
Scrumptious!
What a fabulous chocolate cake recipe! Love the pinterest vs your version shot – made me smile.
It makes me smile every time I look at it!
That look delicious! I was baking birthday cakes all last week too 🙂 x
Hope the little ones really enjoyed their cakes!
AHHAHAHAHA! The chocolate cake itself is delicious, I’m sure, but I especially love your decorating compared to the Pinterest idea 🙂 Expectations vs. Reality
True! Not sure we could have done better either.
That looks fab and I LOVE the pin fail!! Haha thanks for sharing, going to give this a go x x
Just the cake or the hideous cookie monster as well? If you do, I want to see pictures!
This sounds amazing! I think you did a pretty good job of the decorating. Certainly better than I would have done!
Thanks for linking up with #LittleChefs
You are too kind, lovely! very time I see the Pinterest / our cake comparison, I cannot help but smile at our lack of cake decorating skills!
Your Pinterest fail shot is the real life version that the majority experiences. I for one loved it – reassuring indeed!