So im a Dessert Whore. I proclaim my love for one dish before quickly moving on to professing my undying love for another. Does this make me insincere? NO! Rather, I like to think of myself as a Mormon husband in the world of baked goods, collecting my many wives as I go but never neglecting to care for the wives I have already accrued. Who says I can’t have my cakes and eat them?
I was on the hunt for something truly spectacular. After all, the Mothership was turning the big 6 0 and that only happens once. It was my chance to show her how grateful I am for her putting up with me and my messiness for the past twenty something years. Now, you may not know this, but the Mothership does not run on fuel, she does not have a flux capacitor, she isnt solar powered. No, the Mothership runs on chocolate. A truly ingenious invention! Therefore, the birthday cake I was to make had to be something chocolaty in the extreme.
Does this look chocolaty enough? No? Appearances can be deceiving…
Basically, the Bourke St Bakery Flourless Chocolate Cake is like eating a little piece of Chocolate Heaven. Unbelievably light, intensely chocolaty basically I felt like I was lapsing into a woosy chocolate coma of goodness. This cake was so rich that the Mothership could not finish her slice. I have never seen that happen. I may have overloaded her circuits. Bourke St Bakery Flourless Chocolate Cake… welcome to the harem.
Thats one tall cake!
Be warned: this cake rises to the heavens. I had tried (and failed… slightly…) to make this cake a few months earlier and found that it is necessary to bake this cake in the tallest tin you have. The cake rises super high and although it falls to make a dense, rich pile of awesomeness, you dont want it to flow over the top of your tin and/or baking paper.
You can’t see it too well, but this tin is much taller than a normal sized cake tin and the mix has risen almost to the top of it
But that sucker SANK!
Thank god!
I made it the night before and let it cool before storing it in a container in the fridge. The next day I took it out of the fridge a few hours before I wanted to serve it so that it would return to room temperature. And so that I could decorate it. Because a birthday isn’t a birthday without candles is it?
And I tied a wonky bow around it. Because every girl deserves a cake with a bow around it!
P.s. my amazing DIY skills came into play here when one of the candle letters broke and fell of its stand. Can you tell? NO! HAH!
Happy Birthday!
Flourless Chocolate Cake – From Bourke St Bakery: The Ultimate Baking Companion
Ingredients
260g Dark Chocolate (I did about 160g dark 100g milk chocolate just to make it a tiny less rich)
135mL milk
40g yoghurt
4 eggs
105g caster sugar (for the eggs)
4 egg whites
160g caster sugar (for the egg whites)
135mL pouring cream (35% fat)
55g unsweetened cocoa powder
Method
1. Melt the chocolate and set aside (make sure it is in a bowl that will be large enough to hold the entire cake mix
2. Put the milk and yoghurt in a saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat and set aside, the mixture should be curdled – thats ok!
3. Put the eggs and the sugar for the eggs in a bowl and whisk for about 10 mins for until the mixture has doubled in volume and is very light
4. In a VERY clean bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks then slowly (a few spoonfuls at a time) until the mixture forms into a shiny meringue. Be careful not to overmix. Place this mixture into the fridge
5. Whip the cream until soft peaks form and place it in the fridge
6. Whisk the curdled milk and yoghurt mixture into the chocolate then add the cocoa and whisk it well together
7. In three batches, fold in the whipped eggs making sure you completely incorporate the first batch before adding the next one
8. Gently fold the meringue into the whipped cream then fold this mixture into the chocolate mix in three batches. Be careful not to knock out too much air
9. Scoop or pour the mixture into a prepared springform tin and gently even out the surface
10. Bake at 150 degrees celsius for 1 hour and 15 mins. If you can smell the cake cooking within the first 25 mins your oven is too hot and you will need to drop the temperature. Take care not to disturb the cake for the first 45 mins after which you should turn the cake around to make sure that it is cooking evenly. If it looks like it is browning too quickly on top you can cover it loosely with silver foil.
11. Test to see if the cake is ready by gently placing your hand on top of it and wobbling it a little, you should feel if the cake is set through. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before removing it from the tin.
12. You can refrigerate the cake if you are not serving it on the day, or you can wait until it is cool completely and serve it then. if you have stored it in the fridge, make sure that you allow the cake to return to room temperature.
13. When you are cutting the cake, keep a jug of hot water present to dip the knife into so that it cuts smoothly.
Yuuuuum! So when are we having it again … ?
Wow, that’s an impressive cake! The recipe is pretty unique… I thought I’d seen all the flourless chocolate incarnations there were, so the yoghurt intrigues me. Might have to give this a go 🙂
Thanks Kiki! The milk/yoghurt mix looked pretty yuck after it curdled but far out, the cake tasted good. I would highly recommend that you try it!
Oh man, I miss that cake. Just moved to London from Sydney and that cake was a stand by saviour at the close of a bad day. Thank you for posting the recipe- had to leave all my cookbooks behind too!
Tori that sounds awful! Having to leave all your cookbooks behind 🙁 except that you’re in LONDON!! That is my dream place to live! And no shortage of amazing bakeries to get your chocolate cake fix at 🙂 glad I could help you out with the recipe though!