Heavenly French Chocolate Cake

This is a delicious classic French gateau au chocolate, a flourless chocolate cake. Though the original recipe calls for refined white sugar, I’ve made it with evaporated cane juice. A serving of one-eighth of the cake has only 12 carbohydrates, making it the lowest carb cake I know of. No wonder those French women keep their figures!

The texture is a bit different than cakes made with flour–more spongey, but very cake-like and very delicious! My taste tester couldn’t believe it did not contain flour–he was sure it did. Here is the divine recipe, using all-natural sweeteners:

This is usually made with bittersweet chocolate instead of cocoa, but since sugar-free organic bittersweet chocolate is not available, I’ve made it with cocoa so we can all choose our own sweeteners. As it is, the recipe is bittersweet–if you prefer, you can add more evaporated cane juice for a sweeter cake.

Note: This recipe requires using an electric mixer to mix two different sets of ingredients. If you have an electric hand mixer and an electric stand mixer, the easiest way to make this is to use both. I’ve written the recipe this way. If you only have one or the other, use two bowls or rinse the bowl and re-use it.

INGREDIENTS

• 10 tablespoons butter (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons)
• 1/2 cup sifted powdered evaporated cane juice (sold as “organic” powdered sugar)
• 9 tablespoons cocoa (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon)
• 5 eggs
• Pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 300F.

2. Use the wrapper from the butter to grease a 7″ springform pan and set aside.

3. Cut the butter into tablespoons and melt over low heat. When the butter is completely melted, remove from heat and add the cocoa and sweetener. Stir with a wooden spoon until blended. Allow this to cool for about 15 minutes.

4. Set out the mixing bowl for the stand mixer, a mixing bowl for the hand mixer, and a refrigerator storage container. Then crack and separate 4 eggs. Put all the whites in the stand mixer bowl, two yolks in the hand mixer bowl, and two yolks in the storage container (these are leftovers and will not be used in this recipe). Then crack an additional egg and put in in the hand mixer bowl. You should now have:

Stand mixer bowl – 4 whites
Hand mixer bowl – 2 yolks plus 1 whole egg
Storage container – 2 yolks

5. Beat the whites with the stand mixer until they form stiff peaks. Beat the yolks plus whole egg with an electric mixer until light and foamy. Then slowly add the cocoa mixture and continue to beat until all is well incorporated.

6. Pour the butter/cocoa/egg mixture into the egg whites and fold together with a spatula until well incorporated. There should be no bits of egg white, but do not overmix. Stop as soon as it is all incorporated.

7. Pour the batter into the springform pan and bake for about an hour. The cake will rise quite high and the top will crack open. The center should be set, but does not need to be dry.

8. Allow to cool completely on a rack, and then remove the sides of the pan. The cake will deflate some, but still be as high as standard layer cake.

9. This is delicious just plain, or serve sprinkled with powdered sugar, topped with Whipped Cream, or make it into a Black Forest Cake. My taste tester suggested sprinkling the warm cake with kirsch (cherry brandy), Chambord (raspberry liqueur), Grand Marnier (orange cognac) or other liquor, though be aware some of these contain sugar.

Yields one 7-inch cake