Cake, Cake and More Cake!

Last night was a rare occurence. I had cake. Great googly moogly, it was good cake too and totally worth it. Worth it even knowing full well that there is no way I’m hitting 13% on Monday. Nope, no way at all. I’m sure of it. 😉

The Kid and I were invited to a birthday party for my friend’s son who was turning one. L is one of the best people I have met in a really long time and I’m so glad that she’s come into my life. Her family and friends are amazing too and we had a blast at the party. L’s family is Persian so most of the food was something I’ve never tried before. Every bit of it was tasty and highly recommended!

Earlier in the day (AKA prior to jumping into the birthday cake with both feet), I was in the Quest Kitchen testing a newly created recipe for my own… wait for it… cake. Imagine that coincidence. I have been looking for a while for a grain free, relatively paleo cheat cake, and I modified and combined a few recipes that I found and decided to give it a whirl.

The concoction that I came up with pretty much nailed it on the head. It got thumbs up from both me and The Kid. It contains no flour, no grains, no nuts, no dairy. I call it relatively paleo because it does have sugar but not a lot. Just a quarter cup in the entire cake plus whatever is hidden in the chocolate chips.

It turned out with this really wonderful texture that was sorta like a fluffy fudge/chocolate mousse like texture. Not dense or cheesecake like but really light and fluffy. The top was flaky and crispy from the caramelized sugar. It’s a must try for dessert and you could easily dress it up with vanilla ice cream ala mode if you wanted to live dangerously.

Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake

• 4 eggs, separated
• 8 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips (about 1 1/4 cup)
• 3 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1/4 cup sugar, divided
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/8 cup unsweetened applesauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 inch springform pan with non-stick spray. This is the kind of pan with the removable sides like you make cheesecake in. Place the pan on a cookie sheet and set aside. Melt the chocolate chips with the coconut oil in the microwave or double boiler. My microwave took 1 min 20 seconds to melt the chips.

Stir until smooth and set to the side to cool slightly. NOTE: You don’t want the chocolate steaming hot or it will cook the yolks. Yuck. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks with a whisk for about 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add 1/8 cup sugar, applesauce, and the vanilla, and beat again slightly to combine. Make sure the chocolate is cooled a bit and stir it into the egg mixture.

Beat the egg whites with a mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form. Slowly add in the remaining 1/8 cup sugar and beat on high until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold the egg whites into the chocolate batter. Pour into the prepared pan and bake at 350° for 35 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool for 20 minutes or so. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen and remove the sides of the pan. Sprinkle the top with cocoa and powdered sugar if you like. Makes about 12 servings.

There are several ways to modify this recipe if you want to play with it. I actually didn’t have regular unsweetened applesauce on hand so I used unsweetened pomegranate applesauce. This added a great flavor to the chocolate – almost raspberry like. Are you drooling yet at the thought?

You could use 8 oz of unsweetened chocolate instead of the chips for a less sweet cake. Use a different flavor extract instead of vanilla. Maybe almond or cherry or rum. Top with sliced fruit instead of powdered sugar. Ooooh, or a nice fudgey glaze maybe. Sorry, my imagination digresses.

Enjoy and happy weekend! Let me know what you think and if you have any winning modifications. I love to hear what you guys do with my recipes.