Gluten-Free Decadent Chocolate Cake



Going with the theme of Gluten-Free today (I promise I won't do too much of this), I thought I'd share my other favourite recipe, which I love to portion and keep in my freezer to warm up and serve with my favourite vanilla, caramel and macadamia icecream on nights I feel like eating something sweet and naughty.

It really is your classic gluten-free cake, using whipped egg whites to help it rise and keep it light and fluffy in the absence of a raising agent such as self-raising flour... Some of these kinds of cakes can still be quite dense and heavy (which isn't necessarily a bad thing!), but this one sits on the boarder line of being not too heavy but still not quite light which I love.

Again, the trick is to use good quality ingredients, I used Callebaut Belgian Dark Chocolate in the Select range which has 53.8% cocoa solids which basically means its got a lovely rich well-balanced chocolate flavour without being overly bitter. You can check out the different varieties of Callebaut Chocolate on their website;
and this site also provides mouthwatering chocolate recipes if you have time to browse!

You will need...
2 tablespoons (15gr) cocoa powder
40ml hot water
75g dark chocolate, melted
50g butter, melted
140g firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup (60gr) hazelnut meal (Gluten free)*
2 eggs, separated
½ tablespoon cocoa powder, extra 

Method..
  1. Preheat the oven to moderate 160°C. Grease a 11in spring-form cake tin; line the base and sides with baking paper.
  2. Blend the cocoa with the hot water in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in the chocolate, butter, sugar, hazelnut meal and egg yolks.
  3. Beat the egg whites in a small bowl with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form**, then fold into the chocolate mixture in two batches.
  4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin; bake in a moderate oven for about 1 hr or until firm.
  5. Stand the cake for 15 minutes; turn on to a wire rack, top-side up, to cool. Dust with sifted extra cocoa to serve
*Hazelnut Meal is used in this recipe because although almond meal is the usual basis of a flourless chocolate cake, nothing really goes better then chocolate and hazelnut in my opinion. If you can't get your hands on any though, almond meal will definitely suffice!

**Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks is a critical point in this recipe. If they are too soft they wont aerate the mix enough, and if they are too firm you will spend too much time folding them into the mixture and knock most of the air out in the process.

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