This recipe is extracted from Lazy Baking by Jess Dennison (Hardie Grant, £16.99) Photography ©Matt Russell
Elliott’s Flourless Chocolate Cake
MAKES 8 slices (23-cm (9-in) cake)
TAKES 25 minutes, plus 45 minutes baking time
From day one this has been our top-seller at Elliott’s, so I’m almost embarrassed to share just how easily you can recreate it at home. Simply melt chocolate and butter in a pan, throw in salt, sugar, cocoa and eggs and, after some time in the oven, you’re onto the richest, fudgiest most crowd-pleasing pudding ever. I’ve discovered that the chocolate cake tastes incredible when frozen too – think chocolate fudge brownie ice cream, but lazier!
200g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
200g butter (salted or unsalted), plus 1 tablespoon for greasing
teaspoon sea salt flakes
250g soft brown sugar (light or dark brown work equally well)
70g cocoa powder, plus 2 tablespoons for dusting
6 eggs
1 First, gently melt the chocolate and butter with the salt in a large, high-sided saucepan over a low heat. At the point of being almost melted, remove from the heat – the chocolate and butter will continue to melt in the residual heat.
2 Next, preheat the oven to 180C fan (400F/gas 6) and use the extra tablespoon of butter to grease a 23-cm springform cake tin, then line the base and sides with baking paper.
3 Using a balloon whisk, stir the sugar and cocoa powder into the chocolate mixture – by this point, it should be a comfortable enough temperature for you to dip your finger into. Crack in the eggs and continue to whisk until smooth and glossy.
4 Scrape the batter into the lined tin and bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the cake has risen slightly. Remove
from the oven. At this point the cake will collapse slightly and become all truffle-y and rich! Allow to cool completely then using a small sieve, dust with the extra cocoa powder.
5 This cake keeps well in the fridge for up to 5 days and is ridiculously good served with strained natural yoghurt.
