It seems like I’ve been making a lot of desserts yesterday and while this isn’t an exclusively baking blog, I had to use the occasion of Mom’s birthday to reintroduce this family classic, an almost-flourless chocolate almond cake.
To be frank, you’ve seen this cake before, but it was a while ago and it was an oldie but goodie worth bring back out into the yonder.
This cake is one of those that my grandma used to make with her slightly cracked coffee cup and big spoon – and that was how she measured things. Honestly, it was a method that worked- as long as the proportions were correct, it all came together beautifully.
My mom made this classic Hungarian recipe her own by adding in grated chocolate and raspberry. The chocolate was sort of a happy accident of having too many chocolate bars that my brother and I had to sell for the school fundraisers, and the two of us would spend quite a lot of time grating by hand with a box grater- this was in the times pre-food processor. The raspberry jam I suspect was just because chocolate + raspberry is a splendid idea.
I made this recipe my own by taking the cup + spoon method and translating it into actual measurements. It had to be done, for posterity.
What do I need to make this almost-flourless chocolate almond cake?
- eggs, separated, which in this case gives the cake most of the rise
- almond meal/flour. Back in the day, Mom would grind up almonds t make her own (there was a special tool for that as well). Today we have Trader Joe’s almond meal, and that is just fab. Any store bought almond meal or flour would do.
- semi-sweet chocolate – either blitzed chocolate chips or my favorite semi-sweet pound plus bar.
- breadcrumbs, just a bit
- flour, also just a bit. The whole recipe only has two tablespoons, and if you’re keeping this GF, any GF flour mix would do.
- baking powder, for the rest of the rise.
- sugar and flour and vanilla, because we’re making a cake.
- whipped cream and powder sugar make the icing.
- raspberry gives it something jammy.
This cake is a family favorite and the three of us each had more than one slice after brunch despite being quite stuffed from it. It’s the goods. Definitely give it a try!
Almost-Flourless Chocolate Almond Cake
Ingredients
- 8 large eggs separated
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup almond meal or almond flour
- 2 TB breadcrumbs
- 1 TB all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips or a chocolate bar, ground
- 2 cups whipping cream
- ½ cup confectioner's sugar
- 1 cup seedless raspberry jam
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and add parchment to 3, 8" round cake pans
- In the bowl of your mixer using the whisk attachment, beat the whites until stiff. Transfer to another bowl and set aside.
- Back in the mixer bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale yellow. Add the vanilla and baking powder. Slowly add the almond meal, flour and breadcrumbs, and beat until just incorporated. Add the chocolate.
- Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the sugar/flour/chocolate mixture. Divide the batter into the three cake pans.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until a tester comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for about 5 minutes and invert onto cooling racks to finish cooling.
- Just before you’re ready to assemble, beat the whipped cream and confectioner’s sugar until stiff peaks form (but not so much as to make it butter!).
- To assemble: Set a large flat plate on a large inverted bowl or bottom of a salad spinner (of course, if you have a cake stand, use that). Place a cake layer top side up on the plate. Warm the jam in the microwave just enough to loosen it (30 seconds works for me). Using an offset spatula spread about 1/3 cup of the whipped cream in a thin layer over the first cake layer, leaving about 1/4-inch border along the outside. Drizzle with about 3 TB of the warm jam and spread around. Lay the second cake layer on top, stacking it as straight as possible. Repeat the filling process. Place a third cake layer on top. Spread remaining whipped cream over the entire cake. It’s not supposed to be perfectly smooth, so don’t worry about that. Drizzle with remaining jam.
- Store in the refrigerator. These cake layers also freeze extremely well in case you needed to make it ahead.
