Flourless Chocolate Cake

I love yoghurt and consume tons of the stuff, so I was excited when I saw Activia had brought out a pouring yoghurt in three flavours: Natural, Vanilla and Strawberry. I was even more excited when they got in touch with me to ask if I would like to try some. They were hoping I would come up with some serving suggestions. I am sure they thought I would give a breakfast suggestion, but no. As soon as I saw the cartons I knew it would be at its best poured over chocolate cake and so the search for a chocolate cake began.

I sat on the floor with a multitude of cookbooks around me and flicked through them with the help of a rather nosey baby. My requirements were few, I had to have the ingredients (as we were snowed in) and it had to make me drool thinking about it. I finally settled on a Flourless Chocolate Cake from Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights, a cookbook I just love.


It turned out fabulously and as suspected the yogurt was delicious with the cake. The rich, fudgey chocolate cake was sweet which contrasted beautifully with the slightly tart yoghurt. Cream would have been too much and would have drowned the flavour of the cake, but the yoghurt complimented it beautifully. This is now my favourite chocolate cake and I will definitely be trying the other flavours of pouring yoghurt.


Flourless Chocolate Cake

300g/2cups of broken plain/semi-sweet chocolate (I used 1 bar of dark chocolate and 2 bars of dark chocolate with orange and almonds)
225g/1 cup of caster sugar
180ml/¾ cup of boiling water
225g/1 cup of salted butter, cut into cubes (I used unsalted and added a pinch of salt to the mix)
6 eggs, separated (I used large eggs)
1 tsp of instant coffee powder
1 tbsp of vanilla extract

Grease and line the base of a solid-bottomed 20cm/8 inch square or 23cm/9 inch round cake pan. Sophie - "I prefer to use a springform cake tin as the texture of the cake is quite moist and sticky, but make sure it's well lined to prevent the mixture leaking through the gaps". Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4.

In a large food processor (or done in two batches), pulse the chocolate and sugar until fine. Add the boiling water, butter, egg yolks, coffee powder and vanilla extract (add a pinch of salt if you are using unsalted butter). In a glass bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and then add them to the mixture in the food processor and blend for 10 seconds or so. Jacqueline - "I mixed a dollop of the stiff egg whites into the food processor mixture, then gently folded the rest of the chocolate mixture into the egg whites. It just seemed the right thing to do!". Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and put in the hot oven for 45-55 minutes. The top will be cracked like a desert fault line.

After you take the cake out of the oven it will collapse in on itself quite a bit. This is ok; it's not meant to be a proud cool cake, it's meant to be slightly rough around the edges and home-made looking.

Let the cake, cool, then put in the fridge for a few hours.

Sophie - "My favourite, favourite thing!".
Jacqueline - "My favourite, favourite thing (this week and my favourite chocolate cake of all)!".

Disclosure: Activia sent me some yoghurt to try. I was not expected to write a positive review and any opinions expressed are my own.