Choc-a-riffic!
Is this enough chocolate for ya?
So, I may have missed the deadline for Sugar High Friday: The Chocolate Sessions, but that doesn’t mean I can’t post about this cake now, does it? 
Despite my numerous claims that I’m not a chocaholic (I’m not - promise!), I find myself drawn to cooking with it again and again. I prefer cooking with dark chocolate so even if the end result is something far too rich for my tastebuds, there is something to be said for the allure of creating a chocolate concoction - the glossy sheen as it melts, the warming scent that permeates the kitchen as it cooks, and finally, the intense flavour and sugar rush experienced as you devour a bite of your chocolatey friend.
Mmmmmmm…
This is by far one of the most intensely chocolatey things that I have ever made, bar none. Being flourless, it is a fairly compact cake and I think that just serves to make the chocolate flavour even stronger! I’d even contemplate calling it orgasmic, as a few bites of this may send your senses reeling and render you incapable of doing anything but grinning like an idiot with a goofy smile pulled across your face from corner to corner.
Heed my warning, folks. This is not a cake for the timid or soft-hearted.
Even a few days after this has been made, it’s still obscenely moist and fudgy
This recipe was pulled directly from ‘Totally Simple Food‘ by Jill Dupleix and has not been changed in a single way as I think this is utterly perfect as it is. If a chocolate mud cake and a chocolate brownie eloped into the sunset, this cake would be their love child as it combines the best of both worlds - its crumb is slightly like that of a dense chocolate cake, but has the sticky fudginess that you get with a brownie. And, as an added bonus, it’s safe for coeliacs as it’s flourless - how good can this get???
At this point I’m going to stop gasbagging and just give you the recipe, with a recommendation and a warning. This is one heck of a chocolate hit. Beware.
Little Chocolate Cakes (from Totally Simple Food by Jill Dupleix)
Ingredients
200g dark, bitter chocolate
100g caster sugar
120g butter, plus extra for buttering moulds
100g ground almonds
4 eggs, seperated
pure icing sugar, for dusting
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and lightly butter a tray of large muffin moulds.
2. Roughly chop the chocolate and melt in a bain marie. Then add the sugar and butter to the chocolate in the bain marie and stir till well combined and you have a smooth, glossy sauce. Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes.
3. Add the ground almonds and stir in till evenly mixed in, then beat in the egg yolks one at a time till combined.
4. Place the egg whites in a large dry bowl and beat till you have stiff peaks. Stir a large spoonful of the egg whites into the chocolate to lighten it, then gently fold in the remaining egg whites with a large rubber spatula.
5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin moulds, and bake for 25-30 minutes.
6. Leave to cool for 10 minutes (don’t worry if they sink a little in the middle, this is perfectly natural) and serve at room temperature with a light dusting of icing sugar.
Enjoy these slowly, savouring each chocolatey bite!
Technorati Tags: chocolate, cakes, muffins, flourless, coeliac, recipe
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Comments
Ellie Ivonne - Hehehe, glad they took your fancy
Kat - I’ve got two mates who are coeliacs and I’m planning on making this for them 
Just because they can’t ingest wheat is no reason for them not to be able to indulge!
Mandi - Cheers hon 
sue Oh oo, I love the snow on the chocolate cake. It is just perfect with dark chocolate I think. You can submit one of those pictures for DMBLGIT.
Jerry I missed SHF as well, and I’ve got to say this cake looks as good as the tarts I put together. I’m going to have to make this cake next week to surprise my wife!
Lisa MY GOD you’re trying to kill me. 
They look so incredibly good (your pictures are stunning!) and so rich and fudgy and so dammitwhyaren’ttheyinfrontofmerightnow??
For a non-chocoholic, you could stand proudly with the rest of us chocoholics, without a doubt!
gattina It’s my kind of cake! Never knew it still moist a few days after… couldn’t control myself to leave some!
Karin In Sweden this cake would be a success. Swedish women love chocolate cakes. A cake called “Kladdkaka” is the most popular one. It´s quite sticky, but after an hour or so in the fridge it´s perfect. (Served with whipped cream or perhaps vanilla cream).
Ellie Brilynn - I may not be a chocaholic, but I know exactly know what you mean!
Tanna - Thanks hon
Gattina - It’s been a struggle, trust me
Karin - Ooo, I’ll make note of the fridge and cream thing, that might be a good way to serve it next time
Susan at Food "Blogga" As I’ve just come into my must have chocolate cycle, your timing is perfect. I was gonna make an egg white scramble for breakfast. But now I simply must have chocolate. My husband Jeff will have to fend for himself.
P.S. I just noticed your link to my blog. Thank you so much!
Patricia Scarpin Dear Ellie,
WOW, WOW, WOW!!!
This is an amazing recipe!
I love the fact that it calls for ground almonds (almond meal) since it adds moisture.
And it’s also good to know you’re enjoying this book, I like it very much.
It’s not fair to use the words “brownie” and “mud cake” together, my friend.
neil I’ve been using Jill’s recipe for years since I ripped it out of a newspaper, it was so easy to remember that it mattered not when I lost the original, back then Jill must have had a skerrick of diet consciousness for there was only 100 g buttter!
Ellie Susan - I hope hubbs had a good contingency plan and didn’t go without brekky
Linda - My pleasure hon
Patricia - Oh my dear, you have to make this! And I can’t thank you enough for urging me to try some of Jill’s recipes, otherwise I may never have left the bosom of my other books!
Neil - Ooo, so I can drop the amount of butter to 100g with no consequences? Thanks for the tip
Helen Oh this is so getting on the “to bake” list! Might add a shot pf espresso or liqueur to intensify tha chocolate taste. Yumm!
jenjen I have had this recipe bookmarked for a long time but have never actually made it. Your photos are making me realise what I am missing out on. Oh boy, how I love chocolate!
gilly Ellie, what a work of chocolate mastery! I love the chocolate-love-child analogy… that’s all I can think of when I see the picture now… The recipe definately needs a rename…
Ellie Helen - I think that the espresso or liqueur is a marvellous idea! Thanks hon!
Jenjen - You should definetely give this a try I don’t doubt that your photo skills will blow mine outta the water!
Gilly - I do think that chocolate love child has a better ring to it than little chocolate cakes 
Ari - Aww, thanks hon
Clare Looks absolutely beautiful.
I found your site while searching the internet for chocolate cake recipes for my wedding. How many do you think this would serve? I might have to ‘trial’ it and see anyway!!
Sarah I found your blog through stumbleupon…and as soon as I can figure out what a bain marie is, and convert the measurements for the ingredients, Im off to the store. This looks to good to pass up.
Ellie Bea - They certainly made me feel quite rich
Clare - I’m so sorry that I didn’t respond to your comment - for some reason my blog didn’t email the comment through to me! The recipe makes about 12 small-ish muffin sized rounds (the equivalent of about one cake 28cm in diameter), and seeing as they are quite small you might want about 2 per guest? Which, if you’re having quite a few guests for the wedding, could amount to quite a mountain of chocolate But your best bet is definitely to give it a try and make a calculation based on that!
Best of luck with the weight loss/training (am doing the same thing at the moment! Hehehe!) and wedding preparations!
Sarah - A bain-marie is when something in a container is heated using steam. So, to melt chocolate in a bain-marie, place it in a non-reactive metal bowl, then place the bowl over a saucepan of water that is barely simmering. Try and keep the water at no more than a simmer as if it starts getting along at a rolling boil it will not be too good for the chocolate 
As for conversions, this link might be handy http://www.cuisinecuisine.com/FoodConversions.htm
Let me know how it goes, I’d love to hear how it turned out for you and what you think of the recipe!
monica I love chocolate, I am going to try this recipe and let you know how it comes out. If you get bored, check out my Chocolate blogs on friendsEAT. Chocolate ROCKS!!!
Kake Thanks very much for this! (I was sure I’d commented before to thank you, but I must have forgotten to save it or something.) I’ve made it a few times now. Regarding the butter quantities - I think it’s definitely better with the greater quantity. I reduced it to 100g and it was noticeably less moist.
Ellie Monica - I hope you liked the recipe
Kake - Cheers I’m glad you like the recipe, and thanks for the note re: the butter, I’ll stick with the 120grams as I do have to admit that I like my cakes to err on the moister side of things
I’m choc-a-fied!