Death by Chocolate Cake

     I planned to make this cake for my friend Maggie's birthday- she loves chocolate, and it doesn't get much better than this flourless cake for a chocolate lover. It is dense, rich and incidentally, one of the simplest desserts I have ever made. I served it with raspberry sorbet to balance out the devilishly rich chocolate flavor. I think it is best served at room temperature or warm, but can be stored for a couple days in the fridge. This  was adapted from a recipe in Rozanne Gold's "Cooking 1-2-3" (found on epicurious.com). It calls for semisweet chocolate (and no sugar) and didn't include the cinnamon, which I think was a nice addition. The chocolate flavor is very strong, so you don't notice it right off the bat, but it adds a subtle note to the scent and taste of the cake. Needless to say, I brought the cake to Maggie's apartment before the party and it didn't make it long enough to see her birthday :-).

Flourless chocolate cake 
-8 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
-1 cup sugar
-10 Tbs us butter
-1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
-6 medium eggs (or 5  large or extra large eggs)
-1/4 tsp salt

-Start by melting the butter and chocolate in a double boiler over medium heat on the stove. If you don't have a double boiler (like me!), fill a large saucepan with water and place a smaller saucepan inside (you'll melt the chocolate and butter in the smaller saucepan). The idea is that the stove will heat up the water and then heat up the chocolate more slowly and evenly, preventing it from burning. Stirring the chocolate mixture frequently will also allow the chocolate to melt properly (you don't have to stir continuously, but definitely keep a close eye on it).

The chocolate, sugar and butter melting in my make-shift double boiler

- Once the chocolate and butter has started to melt, add the sugar, and continue to stir.
- Remove the mixture from heat when completely melted and add the cinnamon.
-Whisk the eggs with the salt until it triples in size (about 8 minutes with an electric mixer).
-Fold in the chocolate mixture until it is completely incorporated. At this stage, if the chocolate it too hot, it will cook the egg before they have mixed... but if you removed it from heat when you started the eggs, you should be fine.
-Prepare a 8 1/2 inch cake pan by lining the bottom with parchment paper (cut to fit the bottom) and spraying the pan with cooking spray. They recommended a springform pan, which would certainly make it easier to remove the cake, but I didn't have one and it turned out just fine.
-Pour the batter into the cake pan and smooth to cover the bottom evenly
-Bake at 375 F for ~20 minutes- the center should still be slightly moist, and I think it would have had a slightly better texture if it had been baked less (about 18 min instead of 20).
-Allow the cake to cool about 30 minutes in the pan before removing.