Flourless Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

400 g dark chocolate

90 g butter

½ tsp instant coffee

¼ cup water

¼ cup cream

6 egg yolks

50 g sugar

6 egg whites

100 g sugar

70g ground almonds

1 cup raspberries

¼ cup icing sugar

300 ml thickened cream

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Combine the chocolate, butter, instant coffee and water in a glass or stainless steel bowl, then place over a saucepan of hot water.

Stir until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Remove from the saucepan and stir in the cream to cool the mixture. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Using an electric beater, beat the egg yolks and the 50g of sugar until thick, pale and fluffy about 8 minutes.

In a different bowl, using a clean electric beater, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add the 100g sugar. Whip until white and glossy with medium to firm peaks.

When the chocolate has cooled, fold in the egg-yolk mixture and ground almonds, then lastly the egg whites in three separate amounts.

Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 170ºC and bake for a further 20 minutes until the top forms a crust, it feels set in the centre and the cake appears to be coming away from the sides. Remove from oven. Cool cakes completely before filling.

For raspberry sauce, mash the raspberries with the icing sugar and set aside.

Arrange one cake on a serving plate and top with dollops of thickened cream. Spoon over half the raspberry sauce and sandwich with the rest of the cake. Serve with remaining sauce on the side.