Flourless chocolate cake

[Ephiny]

Does anyone have experience of making flourless chocolate cakes and can give me some advice please?

As far as I can tell there are two main methods - one where you separate the eggs and whip the egg whites before folding into the chocolate mixture, and a simpler one where you just beat the eggs together with the other ingredients. Is it worth bothering with the faff of separating eggs etc, does it really make a big difference to the finished cake?

Also, do I need to bake this in a water-bath? A lot of recipes suggest this, especially for a big cake, but not sure I have anything big enough for my 10inch cake tin to go in, and also it's a springform tin so I'm worried about the water leaking in...

Hi Nigella does a good one in Domestic Goddess but I did have a recipe once called 'cow pat' which was flourless and tasted divine (surprisingly with a name like that)! BBC food always have good recipes too...

made this one many times no bain, no faff with egg whites etc

(not sure if coco powder is non flour though)

There's one I've made for years which is an Australian chocolate cake made with grated apple and ground almonds instead of flour, with melted dark chocolate, some sugar, and separated eggs. I can't find the exact recipe online, but it's similar to this one but without the breadcrumbs/flour.

It is lovely and rich and moist. Yes, I think separating the eggs makes a big difference, as it is the beaten egg whites that put all the air into the cake, in the absence of baking powder/self-raising flour. That one doesn't use a water bath. I tend to use silicone cases for cakes these days - much easier to release them without cracking, and no messing around with lining cake tins.

Nigella does a choc and lime one which I amended to choc and orange. It was really easy, great success and definitely no bath req.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll look up Nigella's one, I usually find her cakes easy and reliable!

It didn't even occur to me that there might be flour in cocoa powder - will need to check that as the cake is supposed to be gluten-free.

With the separating eggs question, thinking about it I'm guessing it's about what kind of cake you want - light and airy like a mousse, or dense and fudgy. Given my failure at making chocolate mousse in the past (the air just seems to disappear from the whipped egg white when I start to fold them into the chocolate :() I might be better off with the other method!

Are you determined to make a flourless chocolate cake or just a gluten free cake? Loads of recipes don't require separating eggs - Nigella has a couple of recipes for flourless cakes in Feast, one of which is an apple cake I think. Lemon polenta cake works well - google it for a recipe.

Another thing to check if you're using real chocolate is that it doesn't include malt which is from barley (gluten).

I second the chocolate thing-not just the ingredients list, but that the factory doesn't also process products with cereals. I made my coeliac friend a cake with green and black's chocolate and it may have triggered a reaction. I am gluten intolerant rather than coeliac and I am fine with anything unless it actually has a gluten-y ingredient. I think if the recipe says beaten egg white then you do need it, as it makes the cake much fluffier and lighter. Oh and dove's farm gluten free flour works really well for all the cakes I've made with it ,if you wanted to use a recipe that you love already.

I agree with Hellymelly - Doves flour is great for your normal cake recipes. Just add a tbsp of water/other liquid for every 1oz/25g flour to make it work properly. You also need to make sure you are flavouring it - chocolate/vanilla/lemon etc - as the flour obviously tastes a bit different to wheat flour.

James made a flourless choc cake on Saturday Kitchen this morning so you could watch that on iplayer?

Lorraine Pascale does one, haven't tried it out yet but will do soon. It's in her latest book.