Chocolate Heaven

This is most likely the first and last time I will EVER bake this cake. Why? you ask. Because when you see the ingredient list, your heart will begin to palpate quickly the same way mine did when I put together this small cake. This recipe is not for the faint of heart. No, it is for those who give their heart to others completely, for those who care deeply.

This is a flourless chocolate cake of proportions I will only make for those truly needful of such decadent pleasure.

And on this day, not even Valentine's Day was so deserving of such a recipe, Happy Birthday to my dear Candice. :) Early it may be to write this up but needful.

Flourless Chocolate Cake
*the recipe came from the Gluten Free Goddess but I've made some changes for those without food processors/blenders or don't want to clean up such machines

16 oz of semi-sweet chocolate (or any chocolate you wish)
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup very hot strong coffee or espresso
2 tbl cocoa powder, sifted
1 cup (16 tbl) of unsalted butter
8 eggs, room temp
1 tbl homemade vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9 inch cake pan, if the sides are only about an inch high, line with parchment or foil with overhanging edges for the cake to rise. If using a 10'' cake pan, ignore the following, I also prepped two silicone baking cups of a large muffin size for excess batter.

In a double boiler (for those without a double boiler, place a glass bowl above a small pot with an inch of simmering water), melt together the chocolate and cubed butter. When it's all melted, add both sugars and hot espresso in batches, mixing thoroughly. Take the chocolate mixture off the double boiler and sift in 2 tbl of cocoa powder. When this is incorporated, begin to add your eggs one by one, whisking briskly to prevent the egg from cooking (you don't want scrambled eggs in your cake). The batter will get thicker with each egg. Right before the last egg, add the vanilla and whisk to incorporate everything.
Pour the batter into your pans and bake for 55-60 minutes at 350. Your skewer should go in cleanly and come out with a few moist crumbs.It's perfect with a drizzle of homemade ganache and sifted powdered sugar and a large glass of milk or mug of hot coffee - after all, you're bound to have made extra coffee when brewing for the cake.

If making this for a birthday as I did, make a batch of chocolate ganache.

Chocolate Ganache
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
4 oz of semi-sweet chocolate
1 tbl butter
1 tbl irish whiskey (or any other flavoring you wish)

Heat together cream and butter until the butter is melted and the mixture hot. Pour in the chocolate and let sit for 5 min. Stir together and add in the whiskey. Drizzle over the cake, using a spatula to help spread the chocolate.

I flipped the cake upside down to have a flatter surface for writing and frosting. But feel free to just cut a slice, drizzle ganache over the top and ignore making a pretty cake in favor of eating it. :)