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I know, I know…we’ve all had plenty of chocolate cakes in our lives. They are possibly our family favourite desserts and a standard celebratory dessert. 

We had a family birthday recently and I was asked to make a low key dinner, including the dessert. Apparently birthdays are overrated when you’re a young adult…no need for big parties, cakes, songs or candles. Sigh!

So we had home made burgers that I tasked one of our guest into grilling, hot chips from the local takeaway shop, ready-to-cook buffalo wings, creamy coleslaw brought by another of our guests, all in the spirit of effortless cooking. As the hostess, I provided all the burgers ingredients and toppings as well as a generous help of cut fruits, for good measure.

This left me with plenty of time to bake the cake. I decided on a flourless cake, as we have been experimenting with nut flours lately. Usually, almond flour is my go-to substitute, but lately I have discovered pecan flour and thought I’d add some to the mix for extra nuttiness. 

I know there are a lot of flourless chocolate cake recipes out there. This recipe is from The Artisan Mill, who produce flours from nuts and seeds grown on their farms in Victoria. 

Theirs involve a lot of eggs, that need separating and the whites whipped into soft peaks, but it is quite easy to put together. The end result is a chocolate cake that is light yet rich, buttery yet not gooey. We served it for dessert with a generous dollop of cream and vanilla ice cream.

But the revelation came the next day, when I cut a little wedge to have with my coffee. I had read about a flourless chocolate cake and olive oil combo on NQN’s blog a while ago. Intrigued I thought I’d drizzle some pecan oil I brought back from our recent travels and add a pinch of rock salt. Oh my goodness, it tastes even nuttier. It is so moorish I have had a little bite with my morning coffee for the past 3 days.  

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Pecan Oil

Adapted from The Artisan Mill

Serving Size:

12-14

Time:

120mn baking

Difficulty:

Easy

Ingredients

• 6 eggs, separated
• 75 castor sugar
• 300g dark chocolate
• 250 g unsalted butter
• 120g seed or nut flour ( I used 100g almond flour, 20g pecan flour )
• 175g brown sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Prepare a 12” cake tin and preheat the oven to 150C.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler, then let cool till lukewarm. 
3. In the meantime, whisk the egg whites with castor sugar, till soft peaks form.
4. Stir the egg yolks into the cooled chocolate butter mixture.
5. Combine the brown sugar and nut flour together  and fold through the chocolate mix. Add the vanilla extract.
6. Fold the whipped egg whites gently into the chocolate mix, gradually adding a third of the whipped eggs at a time. 
7. Pour the batter in the tin and bake for 120mn at 150C. Check the cake with a knife or a cake tester at the 100mn mark, when clean it is ready. 
8. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 mn then unmold onto a sheet lined plate. Allow the cake to cool completely.
9. Serve with a drizzle of pecan oil and sprinkle of rock salt.