Flourless Chocolate Cake

I've gotten a couple of requests to do a gluten free recipe.  I did some research and found some really good websites, and then put the information aside and kept telling myself I would get to it.  Then Ween called me and asked if I could make a cake for her coworkers birthday - and it had to be gluten free.  Perfect! Finally the motivation I needed to finally do that gluten free post!  And I had the perfect thing in mind.  I checked out a fantastic blog that is dedicated to all gluten free foods - its fantastic, everyone could get something out of it.  And of course, this is where I got my recipe from the Gluten Free Goddess.  (Another great website is Gluten-Free Desserts)  And when I saw the chocolate cake, it was perfect....who doesn't like chocolate cake?!  The recipe seemed to be easy, and I all needed was dark chocolate.  This was going to be so easy.

Not so much.  Let's just say I will never forget this day.  I had the chocolate broken into pieces already, but it needed to be chopped up, so I followed the recipe and did it in the food processor.  Now, we have an old, tiny one, and it works great! So I took that little guy out and started working in batches.  I was only on my second batch, and then all of the sudden, I smell it.  Something gross, and a something is burning smell.  I can feel the little guy is super hot, and then that's when I see it - smoke.  Smoke coming out of the food processor!! I quickly unplug it and empty the chocolate into the mixing bowl.  By now, the food processor is smoking - A LOT.  I flipped it over to see if I could get at the inside of it and saw that it was pointless to even try - I just put it on the kitchen floor and let it smoke itself silly. 

the culprit

It sat there on the floor, smoking for at least 30 minutes.  The smell, unfortunately, lasted much longer.  :(
So now that I've almost burned my house down, I turn my attention back to baking.  I throw the rest of the unchopped chocolate into a bowl - my green, warped one from the brown butter icing incident - and stick it in the microwave to melt it.  HUGE MISTAKE! Apparently the bowl didn't want to go into the microwave and when I took it out, the part that had previously melted was plyable.  :(  Time to throw away my favorite bowl. (Don't worry, it didn't do anything to the chocolate)  Luckily I have 2 more as back ups, but this one was the perfect size.



the melted part



inside the bowl

So now I'm down 2 kitchen items, and all I can do is hope that this thing doesn't explode inside my oven.  I fill up the springform pan with the batter.....



the batter was very tasty

and bake it off.  I am very happy to report that no cake exploded or anything burning happened! A perfect cake emerged and I was happy that I had gotten through this. 

looks fantastic!

I could of definatley used a drink after this experience.  I rank it right up there with the yeast incident.  But learn from my boo boo people - just melt the chocolate in the microwave in a non-warped bowl - it will be so much easier. And on the bright side of things, I get to go shopping for a new food processor! :)  Here's the link for the recipe :)

Flourless Chocolate Cake


I sent Ween off to work with the cake, praying that everyone, especially the birthday girl, would like it.  It's kind of nerve wracking when you send someone off with something you've never made or tasted before for a bunch of people to eat.  But they were excited when I said I would bake something - I hope I didn't let them down.  I hear from Ween later in the day and the cake was a hit!  So excited and happy that it went over so well.