[QUOTE=jjimm]
I made a flourless chocolate cake for my wedding. It was fantastically good though I say so myself.
Ingredients (from memory):
38 eggs (32 separated)
2 kg (~4.4 lb) 70%-cocoa chocolate
2 kg (~4.4 lb) sugar
2.5 kg (~5.5 lb) ground almonds
Melt the chocolate in a bain marie. This takes a couple of hours. Meanwhile beat the 32 egg whites to a soft peak. Allow the chocolate to cool just to solidification point and beat in the 6 unseparated eggs, sugar, and the ground almonds. Pour the egg whites into the chocolate - not the other way round - and gently fold together until consistently mixed. Pour into oiled tins and bake at 175C (~350F) for about 1.5 hours (for the largest tin - reduce for smaller ones). Makes four big cakes.
I’m scaling this down to about 25% tomorrow to make my buddy’s 35th birthday cake for Saturday.
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Mine is 1 lb chocolate (dark), 1/2 lb butter, 6 eggs. Melt the chocolate and butter together and beat the crap out of the eggs (whites and yolks) until the triple in volume and get as stiff as they’ll get with the yolks in them. Fold gently - a little at a time - then bake for five minutes uncovered in a waterbath at 425 - cover with buttered foil and bake another 10 minutes. Fridge overnight and unmold (use a springform pan)
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over barely simmering water. Once the chocolate is melted, add the butter, and mix well. Add the sugar, and mix till dissolved. Add the egg yolks, and mix till the mixture looks glossy. Then add the flour, and leave to rest whilst you beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Fold in the egg whites and pour into a 20cm greased cake tin. Bake in an oven preheated to 160C for approximately 15 minutes.
Ok the 160 I can figure out easily enough… the other measurements are going to be tricky though. That seems to be by weight, which isn’t how I am used to measuring ingredients. In fact, I have no way to weigh ingredients–the only scale I have is the one in the bathroom. Is there a site that would translate this into cups/tsp/tbsp etc?
For your delight, here’s a picture of the chocolate cake I made for my friend’s birthday last night while half drunk. A bit stuck to the tin as I was taking it out of the tin, that I gave to WriterChick to taste, and I am not joking when I say her eyes filled with tears at how good it tasted. I haven’t tried any yet - am looking forward to unveiling it at the cookout we’re about to go to.
I beat the 8 egg whites with half the sugar until it formed soft peaks. Meanwhile I melted the chocolate in a bain marie. Took chocolate off the heat, allowed to cool, beat in the egg yolks and two other eggs, then mixed in the rest of the sugar and the almonds. This was much thicker than normal, and I was worried it would compromise the foaminess of the egg whites. Contrary to the above directions, due to a bowl mixup and laziness caused by being half drunk, I mixed the chocolate into the whites and it worked out just fine. I cooked half at a time for 45 minutes each, 30 mins at 175C and 15 mins at 160C, and then used some Betty Crocker chocolate frosting to ice the two parts together and the top; and made my own glacé icing for the kind word of affection to my buddy.
I am acknowledgedly arrogant about my cooking, but am honest when I say that I can’t wait to taste this.
I got results similar to what you describe as the cake you want, and it was very easy. I think I wound up using a mix of bittersweet and semisweet chocoloate for the cake, and bittersweet for the ganache.
