This flourless chocolate and hazelnut cake is a delicious dinner party dessert, that also happens to be gluten-free. This intensely chocolate cake has a very rich flavour, thanks to the combination of dark chocolate, Frangelico and hazelnuts. Serve on its own or with pouring cream, ice cream or mixed berries to finish.
Ingredients
- 500g chopped dark chocolate
- 6 eggs, at room temperature
- 2tbsp Frangelico or brandy
- 165g ground hazelnuts
- 250ml cream, whipped
- Icing sugar to dust, and cream, to serve
Method
To make your chocolate cake, preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas 2. Grease a 20 cm (8 inch) round cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Half fill a saucepan with water, bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and sit the bowl over the pan (don’t let the bowl touch the water or the chocolate will get too
hot and seize). Stir occasionally until the chocolate melts.Put the eggs in a heatproof bowl and add the Frangelico. Put the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water — don’t let it touch the water. Beat the eggs with electric beaters on high speed for 7 minutes, or until light and foamy. Remove from the heat.
Using a metal spoon, quickly and lightly fold the chocolate and ground hazelnuts into the eggs. Fold in the whipped cream and pour the mixture into the cake tin. Put the cake tin in a roasting tin and pour enough boiling water into the roasting tin to come halfway up the side of the cake tin. Bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean when poked into the centre of the cake. Remove the cake tin from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Turn out the cake onto a plate, remove the paper and cut into slices.
Dust with icing sugar and serve with cream.
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