By: Danya Weiner

I’ve always said that I prefer a “white” dessert over a “brown” one: Pana cotta, crème Brule, malabi and vanilla ice cream will always beat a chocolate soufflé or a tricolor chocolate cake.

Since I received my English chocolate cookbook (which I told you about in the chocolate roulade post), I have rediscovered my love for the brown stuff, aka, chocolate. My staple banana bread cake has now become a chocolate banana bread cake, and all my other cakes which I make seem to end up now with chocolate chips. Even this past Saturday I prepared pancakes for the kids and I added some chopped dark chocolate. I don’t know what has gotten into me, but I must have gone from my Anchovy phase (see Anchovy post) to a chocolate phase.

This is a recipe I wanted to make since I opened the book. I saw Willy, the author of the book, making it in a documentary on his chocolate factory, and I knew I would love it. There is no photograph of the recipe in the book, and its rather seldom that I prepare recipes in cookbooks with no photo. But the name “Cold Mountain Chocolate Cake”, stood out to me as being the perfect name for a chocolate cake. It’s not too sweet, and not too rich, and definitely not too difficult to make. And better yet, this is a gluten free cake!

Hope everyone had a nice Passover/Easter.

The Best Chocolate Cake

Ingredients for a 9-inch round cake pan:

7 oz./200 grams dark chocolate (I like to use a 60% cacao for this cake)

1¾ sticks (7 oz./200 grams) butter

6 large eggs

¾ cup sugar

1¼ cups ground almonds

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 340ºF/170ºC and butter a round cake pan.
2. In a non-reactive bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter together.
3. In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whisk the eggs and sugar until fluffy.
4. Fold the egg mixture into the chocolate mixture and add the ground almonds. Mix slightly until ingredients are just combined. Do not over mix.
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool to room temperature. You can frost the cake with chocolate ganache (100 ml. heavy cream heated with 3.5 oz/ 100 grams dark chocolate) or just serve with whipped cream.

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