The Sobremesa 21.
flourless chocolate cake
You know what? I love Valentine’s Day. And this is probably the first year I’m admitting it.
For years I took the “cool girl” approach. Valentine’s Day is such a stupid holiday. It’s really just a normal day of the year that Hallmark monetized. You don’t have to get me anything. No, I mean it!
But this year, I’m taking full ownership. I love it! *shouts from the rooftops* Why? I f**ing love love. There, I said it. And honestly I think it’s actually pretty cool that there’s a whole holiday dedicated to love.
And I don’t just mean the romantic love. I love loving my friends, loving my family, loving my bodega man, and loving the cute dog who passes you on the street. And then of course there’s just loving your damn self.
Remember the days when we would spend weeks turning an old shoe box into a Valentine’s Day box and decorating our Valentine’s cards for our whole school class? And then we would go around our classroom giving every single person a Valentine. Back then there wasn’t just *one* Valentine - we were in that shit together. I’d love to go back to that.
And this year, it’s not as Hallmark-y right? No pressure to go out to dinner or have that romantic night on the town. It’s a stripped down and raw Valentine’s Day. How will you show yourself and others love?
Needless to say, it’s been a brutal year. But the one thing that has come to the surface is that we are humans who LOVE. We missed our friends and family from all over the world. We even keep scheduling Zoom hangs just to see them even though we’re all really sick of Zoom.
In the bakery biz, we help people show their love through sweets. Buying a baked good or baking something for someone is a simple and thoughtful way to show your affection. It’s a little more dialed up than a card, but not as extravagant as a pre-fixe dinner course.
So while I was dreaming of Valentine’s treats to make this year, I could not think of anything sexier or more decadent than a flourless chocolate cake.
It’s basically an upgraded brownie - but your gluten-free friends can eat it too! The ingredients aren’t terribly sophisticated, however there is a bit of technique involved in this recipe - so read carefully! Heads up: it’s like a cake spa retreat.
And then there’s a lot of wiggle room to dress her up for her night on the love boat. I made a extremely amateur heart stencil to make a powdered sugar heart shape on top. If you wanna get really sexy, serve with a homemade whipped cream (I promise, it’s easy to make!) and top with some fresh raspberries. Ooh la la!
If you’re boo’ed up (or shacking up with your COVID hookup this winter) - this cake has a 99% success rate in getting you laid.
If this is just for you - take a slice in the bath with you and put on Bridgerton. And if you don’t really care about the plot of an 1800s British period drama, just go ahead and put on Episode 6 :)
Need a little video tutorial? Check out my Instagram Reels (and this Millennial was quite impressed with her Gen Z skills here!)
Blast She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5 while you bake and sing your heart out …I KNOW you know all the words still.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
8 oz bittersweet chocolate (something like this)
8 oz aka 2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
6 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup cocoa powder
Let’s do it!
Take our your good ole cake pan (8”-9” is good): Butter it up (bottom and sides) or use non-stick spray. Then line the bottom with parchment (you can just place your pan on a piece of parchment, draw a line outlining the pan, and then cut that circle out.)
Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler: For your first cake spa retreat, take a saucepan, fill it halfway with water and get it to boil on the stovetop. Then place a bowl on top of this saucepan while the water boils (be sure to use a stainless steel bowl, or some sort of bowl that can withstand the heat). The chocolate and the butter will slowly and evenly melt. Mix occasionally until everything is melted.
Whisk in sugar: take your bowl off the saucepan and whisk in your sugar until evenly melted.
Add eggs
Add salt and vanilla
Sift in cocoa (to prevent clumps) and whisk until combined
Add this mix to your cake pan
Prep water bath: that’s right, you’re going to have another cake spa retreat this baking session! Take an oven-safe pan that is larger than the cake pan (I used a casserole dish). Place your cake pan in this new water bath pan. Then add enough boiling water water bath pan (don’t pour water into your cake batter! this water goes in-between the cake pan and the water bath pan) so that it’s at least mostly covering the batter line in the pan. Why do we do this? Thank you for asking! A water bath adds moisture to the oven, which will ensure the cake won’t crack from the heat of the oven. It will also provide a more even, slower heat source than the direct heat of an oven which is important for rich cakes like these.
Put this whole shebang in the oven. Bake at 375 F for 35+ min or until a thin crust forms around the outside.
Take the cake carefully out of the water bath. Cool in pan for 5 minutes and then invert onto a plate. If you’ve never done the cake flip, it’s pretty fun. Simply take a plate and place it over the cake. Take a towel or oven mitts (the pan will still be quite hot!) and then flip it all over so that the cake is now on top of the plate. Slowly pull up the cake pan. Peel off your parchment. Then take another plate and flip it back over. Note: we don’t want to wait more than 10 mins to flip the cake out - otherwise the cake will cool in it’s pan and be very difficult to get out.
Decorate! I cut out a janky heart stencil from printer paper and then dusted the cake with powdered sugar because I was a little extra. Would also 10/10 recommend making some homemade whipped cream and serving with fresh raspberries.
took a bite before I remembered to take a pic of the final product. classic.
Oh, and this cake is so rich and *moist* (just get over your hatred of that word, it’s the only way to describe certain things) holds for dayyyys. Just put in an airtight container or wrap in foil and put in the fridge.
I’m off to split this cake with my bodega man.
Happy baking, love ya mucho
XOXO
Tessa
p.s. here’s a blooper for when I was trying to film my “you will be loved” video
Made this over the long holiday weekend and it is insanely good. We enjoyed it warm with a dollop of vanilla bean ice cream. A total winner recipe.