Almost Flourless Chocolate Cake
If I am to be remembered for anything, let it be this sophisticated single layer cake—the most elemental chocolate cake on the planet. I was thrilled when I mastered it 40 years ago, intuiting that I had the perfect 30-minute seemingly flourless chocolate cake to bring to holiday gatherings and dinner parties forever. Back in the 80s, I was working on my first cookbook, Ma Cuisine, a collaboration with the great chefs of Los Angeles, at Ma Maison, the hottest restaurant in town, then led by wunderkind chef Wolfgang Puck.
But the ne plus ultra of chocolate cakes came from another legendary LA restaurant called Trumps (no relation). A clandestine bungalow, it was tucked back on the chic, gay part of Melrose Avenue and led by beloved chef Michael Roberts. The chef eventually packed his whisks and moved to Paris, the talent agents stopped coming, and the restaurant said fini.
Sadly for me, by the time the book was published, Puck had decamped to Spago, where he introduced that symbol of 80s casual chic, the smoked salmon pizza. Overnight, Ma Maison, the coolest bistro in Hollywood was dust and the cookbook I had labored on for a year went straight to the land of lost books, “Remainderland.” Sniffle.
But the recipe lives on! When holidays roll around, I still see this elegant cake dolled up with sliced strawberries, edible flowers, or a ladle of creme fraiche at various friends’ homes. Great for parties, you are permitted to eat this chocolate tea cake standing up, with your fingers, according to some obscure rule of Anglocalifornia tea time.
Piper couldn’t care less about all this history. What she cared about was melting the chocolate, licking the bowls, and sprinkling the finished cake with powdered sugar. Oh, and eating it for dessert after her Sunday Texas barbecue.
Chocolate Chaos
One of the lingering mysteries of the pandemic is the great gourmet chocolate shortage; a supply chain glitch that no one wants to talk about. In addition to runs on toilet paper and paper towels, the better (more expensive) chocolate brands disappeared overnight. Now, in place of Valhrona or Scharffenberger, there is only one brand available at my upscale supermarket, Ghirardelli! The same brand sold in individually wrapped squares at airports everywhere is now a “gourmet” product in the baking section? Quel catastrophe!
Piper says
“I don’t know what grandma’s talking about. Ghirardelli bars are perfect; They come in 8 neat little squares and they’re very easy for me to break by hand. When I’m not baking, I love nibbling on them when snuggling up with a book.” Food snobbery is silly.
RECIPE
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 stick butter, softened
⅔ cup sugar
3 eggs
½ cup cake flour
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9-in round cake pan with parchment.
Melt the chocolate in a bowl nestled on top of a small post of simmering water. Stir till smooth and let cool.
In a mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar. Pour in chocolate and mix to combine. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gently mix in flour until it just disappears.
Pour into prepared pan, smooth the top, and bake about 25 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack. Invert onto serving plate, peel paper, and dust top with confectioners' sugar.
