Fudgey and decadent, this is my (extremely) easy flourless chocolate cake made using almond flour. No beating egg whites – I find it works better to use a touch of baking powder instead. The surface of the cake stays level rather than rising then collapsing into a crater, and the inside has a tender crumb instead of being dense. And the added bonus is that it’s ridiculously fast to make!
GREETINGS FROM CANADA! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦 Land of maple syrup and ice hockey – and a few other things I’m told. 😉 I’m here visiting my friend Jo from Jo Cooks in Calgary. At the time this post goes live, I will have just landed so I will have nothing to report other than being bleary eyed and jet lagged after 18 hours of travel. But stay tuned for updates – especially reports from the Calgary event of the year – CALGARY STAMPEDE!!!!
Getting back to regular foodie chat – this Flourless Chocolate Cake. Usually, it’s made by beating egg whites then folding it through the batter to make it rise. Mine is a “dump and mix” version made using baking powder.
I absolutely swear to you, the way I make this isn’t even about taking the easy way out i.e. avoiding pulling out my stand mixer to beat the egg whites.
This recipe came about because I just didn’t like the way flourless cakes made using egg whites would rise while baking, but then collapse into a crater while cooling. Or, if it didn’t collapse while cooling, I would tip toe around it with fear that the slightest floor vibration would make it collapse, and scold Dozer if he dared to trot through the house with his heavy footed paws.
Even if it held up while cooling, with the first cut, it would definitely collapse. And forget decorations! OR – use the decorations to hide the crater.
You get my drift. I like flourless chocolate cake – and one of my best friends’ is gluten free (not by choice). The crater surface annoyed me.
So I fixed it. 🙂 And as it so happens, my fixed version is literally a dump-and-mix job (see video below!).
It took a few goes to get it right. I was interested to find that almond flour / almond meal is highly sensitive to baking powder. Normally, the flour to baking powder ratio is 1 cup : 2 teaspoons, so I tried this with almond flour. The lift this gave the cake while baking was astonishing – it almost overflowed.
Then when I took it out of the oven, it collapsed.
Again – a crater. Humph!
So I tried again, drastically cutting down the baking powder to 1/4 tsp to 1 cup of almond flour. And was amazed that it worked – perfectly. Enough lift to give this cake a crumb like a cake, rather than being brownie-fudgey, but not so much that the surface rises then collapses into a carter surface.
No more craters! No more craters!
It is really hard to capture the texture of this cake in photos. It’s fudgey, but not dense fudgey like brownies. It’s got more of a cake-like texture, but it is much fudgier than normal cakes. Fudgier than my Chocolate Fudge Cake.
It looks like it’s going to crumble but it doesn’t because it’s so moist. It’s intensely chocolatey with beautiful almond undertones, and the surface has a fine crackly layer – like brownies.
It’s really, really good. I’ve made it multiple times since I created it and have no intentions of ever reverting back to the “normal” way of making flourless chocolate cakes i.e. beating egg whites. It’s not just easier. I truly think this is better.
And…you know…..NO CRATER SURFACE!!!! 😉 – Nagi xx
PS. I’ve also finally shared my Whole Orange Cake, which is also flourless and child’s play to make! It’s the cake I made at a wedding I’ve spoken about previously which was held on a remote river. I made a tiered wedding cake from scratch without an oven. Curious…???
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Flourless Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 200 g / 1 ½ cups dark chocolate (Note 1)
- 120 g / 1 stick melted butter
- ¾ cup / 165g white sugar
- 3 large eggs at room temperature (60g/2oz each+) (Note 2)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¼ cup / 17g cocoa powder (preferably Dutch processed i.e. the more expensive stuff)
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 2 cups / 190g almond meal / almond flour (or hazelnut flour)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F (standard) or 160C/320F (fan forced / convection).
- Butter and line a 20cm / 8" spring form pan.
- Melt chocolate and butter in microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring in between until smooth.
- Whisk in sugar. Add eggs and vanilla, whisking well until combined,
- Switch to wooden spoon. Add cocoa powder, baking powder and almond meal, fold through until just combined.
- Pour batter into pan, bake 45 min until top has thin crust and skewer comes out clean, not smeared with batter.
- Cool cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove sides. Cool completely on rack before carefully removing base.
- Dust with cocoa powder then serve. I served mine with strawberries and dollop cream, but it doesn't need it!
Recipe Notes:
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Flourless Chocolate Cake recipe video! Best way to see the texture of the cake i.e. moist, tender crumb but fudgey, not dense and mud cake like. It was difficult to capture in photos. 🙂
LIFE OF DOZER
Dozer only has 5 modes: #1 Sleeping #2 Eating #3 Hoping to eat #4 Playing #5 Hoping to play.
This is #5. (And you’ll see #3 in the video).
this cake is so stunning I had to write a review. so easy to make, not too rich or sweet, like a fluffier brownie!!
The recipe is amazing! Love it. Could the butter be substituted with a vegetable oil or a non-dairy butter substitute? I wondering if it could be an option for friends who are gluten and dairy free?
I actually noticed something strange – THEY ARE NOT YOUR HANDS NAGI!
I made this cake this morning for my dad for FATHER’S DAY.
I didn’t have a spring form tin so I used my glass baking dish and I used 200g IKEA dark chocolate as that’s what I had in the fridge. I also used 1 tlb spoon of maple syrup as I don’t have sugar. The dough tasted great.
It has turned out so well… I’ll let you know how it tastes with that chocolate.
Would I be able to use semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of dark chocolate?
Would this work as cupcakes?
Hi Suha, this one is a little dense for cupcakes sorry! N x
Super easy and works every time! Best of all it’s delicious 😋
Hi! I’m making a cake for my daughters birthday- I need to get it done right now! I font have any coco powder – do you think leaving it out will ruin the recipe? (I’ve got cacao but I think that’s very different!)
Thanks so much!
Hi Sarah, yes leaving it out will ruin the recipe unfortunately – it’s a chocolate cake and does require the cocoa for flavour. N x
I baked this for my hubby’s birthday and it was a huge hit in our house. I decorated it with whipped cream, strawberries and raspberries but it actually doesnt need anything. It tastes amazing by itself. I also used up a lot of left over easter eggs which was a double win, they melted just fine with the butter, Thanks for a fab and easy recipe!
So I baked this yesterday, YUMMMMMY, in a 23cm spring form pan as I don’t have a 20cm one and the sides came up higher than the rest of the cake although Nagi, your cake height is the same all round.
When I checked at 45mins, in parts the skewer still had some batter so I left it for an extra 5mins which, I think, was too long so next time I make one it will definitely leave for 45mins exactly.
I used a 50:50 mix of milk and dark couverture as it was all I had and the cake was so very delicious. You’re spot on, it really doesn’t even need cream.
Warmest wishes from sunny Johannesburg, South Africa
NawaalS
This cake is delicious. The taste and texture of a chocolate brownie – yum! I wasn’t sure I was going to like it because when I tried it hot out of the oven it was SO sweet, but it was great once it cooled to room temp 🙂 only issue I had was that it took 20 minutes longer to bake in my oven even though I had it at 160 (fan forced).
Made this today and it was delicious! Not too sweet. Used powdered sugar instead of cocoa for dusting.
Sounds amazing Mt!! N x
Omg!! this cake is soooo good and easy to make. I substituted the sugar for Swerve and it did not disappoint!! I will be making this cake on the regular😋😋
Delicious and easy!
Just wanted to thank you for the beautiful recipe, it was so easy and delicious!
Hi Nagi,
I hope you are staying safe and are well. I’m wanting to make a chocolate cake for my sons 3rd birthday which I can cover in ganache and then fondant (and decorate with Thomas the Tank sugar work). Which of your chocolate cake recipes (eg this flourless choc or your fudge choc etc) would be best to use (I will bake 2 cakes and layer).
Many thanks,
Faith