Flourless Chocolate Cake with Caramel Whipped Cream

I’m ready for a new year – 2012 had more than its share of bad stuff in it and it’s time to move on. Lots of folks start off the new year with a diet, but diets don’t seem to take with me. I find I’m

 better off eating normal food and just cutting down on my portions. Eating rice cakes with cottage cheese on top just makes me sad. So, in the spirit of eating real (read: indulgent) food, here’s 

an ideal recipe: a really rich flourless chocolate cake, a small sliver of which is guaranteed to satisfy anyone with a hankering for something chocolaty. I serve it here with a Caramel Whipped

 Cream, which is basically a caramel sauce combined with softly whipped cream and then whipped to firm peaks. The cake is an adaptation of one that appeared in The Cake Book, my Chocolate Valentine Cake, which is baked in a heart-shaped pan. And that’s appropriate, because you’re going to love it. Happy New Year!!

Chocolate Soufflé Roll with Cocoa Cream Filling

Part cake, part soufflé, here’s a flourless chocolate cake that’s as light as air. It’s a cake roll, baked in a sheet pan and then topped with a cocoa cream and rolled up, jelly roll style. I love the texture of this cake, which gets all its structure from beaten eggs and chocolate – it’s made with a dozen eggs and 12 ounces of chocolate. The eggs, 

along with a good amount of sugar, are whipped up in a large bowl with a hand-held mixer. If you have a 5 or 6-quart stand mixer, though, you can use that; the beaten eggs will just make it to the edge of the bowl. My chocolate of choice was Guittard 61 percent, one of my favorites, but any high-quality chocolate will do. The 

finished cake is light yet rich; at room temperature it’s very soft, and when chilled it takes on a slightly fudgy resistance. Another wonderful thing about this simple cake is that it’s very easy to put together, though, I must say, it does take a certain amount of bravery to roll it up and then transfer it to a serving plate. But even 

if the cake cracks a bit, a good dusting of confectioners’ sugar will hide, or distract from, any blemishes. This recipe comes from Jeanne Kraus, from the May 1999 cover of Chocolatier. Jeanne is now a Pastry Chef Instructor at Illinois Institute of Art in Chicago, but she gave me this recipe when she was working at the Hudson Club, also in Chicago. Though the Hudson Club has since closed, this recipe lives on as a testament to Jeanne Kraus’s considerable talent.

I'm In the Mood for Love: Chocolate Valentine Cake

Since Valentine’s Day comes but once a year, I thought I’d feature another heart-shaped dessert. This is one of my favorites, and it’s from The Cake Book (by moi). The secret ingredient in this flourless chocolate cake is whipped cream, which replaces butter as the fat and gives it an airy texture. The cake is baked in a water bath, insulating it from direct heat, and making it as creamy around the edges as it is in the center. After baking, the cake is coated in a dark chocolate glaze and then drizzled with a pastel pink white chocolate, making it the ultimate chocolate Valentine dessert. If you’re not in the mood for love (just chocolate), this cake can also be made in a standard 9-inch round cake pan and drizzled with plain white chocolate.