Saturday, March 14, 2009

Ugly Flourless Chocolate Cake made from a Recipe that David Lebovitz Found in the Men's Room


This chocolate cake isn't meant to be ugly, but I'm neither an experienced baker nor do I have the tools to remove the chocolate cake from its pan without destroying it - which is why you only see half of it in this photograph. I assure you, that when, you, an experienced baker make this cake - it will look as beautiful as any other chocolate cake.

I first read about this recipe on David Lebovitz's site. He said he found this recipe scrawled on the wall of the men's room at Racines.

The original recipe was traced to Pierre Jancou and is called LE GÂTEAU DE ZOÉ SANS FARINE.

When the cake first came out of the oven it was more like a chocolate mousse surrounded by a soft ring of chocolate cake, but the morning after it spent the night in my refrigerator, it became more like a cake.

It's moist, very chocolatey and decadent. I was going to put 300 g of chocolate instead of 200 g as I always take Mr. Lebovitz's recommendations seriously but I had a moment of blindness where I couldn't see my own handwriting scribbled on the printout and made the recipe with 200 g of chocolate instead.

Note: Next time I'll bake it for 25 minutes instead of 15 minutes. Even though delicious, the cake was so soft you couldn't remove it from the pan without destroying it so I think it needs to be baked a little longer.

8 comments:

Trish said...

Gosh....this cake DOES look good. We must be on the same 'wavelength' this day...posting chocolate cake. Here it is drizzling outside and a good bite of chocolate will get the old energy up and going again. Maybe we only saw 1/2 the cake slice but I can tell it tastes good from your photo

Siri said...

Hey yea- I read his post about this recipe and was wondering how good it really is. Glad that you played the guinea pig before me!

Also- I always find that sticking a cake in the fridge over night helps it to firm up, becoming more flavorful, and all-around better.

And I'm sure it really wasn't THAT ugly. You're too hard on yourself.

Dewi said...

Oh, that is not ugly at all. You know the trick to make it look neater? Cut the cake with serrated knife that has been dip in a very hot water. Your cake will look like a really smooth and will give the chocolate cake the shine look.
Cheers,
elra

Murasaki Shikibu said...

Trish: haha yes I saw your cake too. Looks much nicer than mine.

Siri: The cake definitely is worth making. It's delicious and I'll definitely make it again.

Elra: Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately the quality of my serrated knife is so bad I think I'll just dip my Wusthof into hot water and try cutting it again tomorrow. Will eventually have to invest in a better serrated knife!

? said...

that cake is not ugly!!!

Murasaki Shikibu said...

heartkorean: Thanks!! Well, you should have seen the rest of it...(the part that's not in the photo), but it sure tasted good. :)

Lori said...

I am certainly gaining pounds just looking at this cake. It looks so fudgy and yummy!

Anonymous said...

Oh that is such a hilarious recipe then, eh? It is not ugly, it looks pretty stunningly fabulous to me!