I Often look at that flourless chocolate cake sitting in full glory amongst the carrot cake smothered in its creamy cheesy top, the Victoria sandwich with its jam middle and the fresh fruit tart, something about it just stands out to me! I’m not making light of having gluten intolerance at all but I wanted to find a recipe that would deliver that full on chocolate hit but without the flour, like eating a chocolate brownie. This I think is it! After trying a few that I’ve not been happy with, yesterday seemed the perfect day to give this one a try, having two avid brownie lovers in the house I new I would get an honest opinion. It passed the cake test with flying colours,”it tastes just like a brownie”. I’m now confident that if I have someone coming to dinner that is gluten intolerant ( of which I know little about ) or bloats after eating cake, this is the one! To be honest I did have a little high five moment when it passed the test!!!! Something else I should mention your kitchen will smell like chocolate heaven!!

It’s another easy one that doesn’t need soften butter, so that a win win for me!

Although the recipe says 40-45 mins cooking time I started checking after 40 mins then every 5 mins at 55mins the skewer came out clean. That was on 160 fan. It does use quite a lot of chocolate ( three bars ) but it’s worth it. As its rich & gooey you only need a small slice, perfect for a dinner party. You can keep it in the fridge for up to a week so it’s a great cook ahead.  We had ours with fresh raspberries and vanilla ice cream ~ delicious! …..

Preheat oven: 180/ 160 fan / gas mark 4

You will need: 23cm springform cake tin, greased and base lined with baking paper. Recipe serves 10-12. Takes 30 mins to prepare, oven time approx 45-50 mins.

• 250g unsalted butter
• 300g good-quality dark chocolate, broken up
• 5 medium free-range eggs,separated
• 250g caster sugar
• 125g ground almonds
• cocoa powder for dusting
• fresh raspberries or your chosen berries and cream or ice cream to serve

Method:

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a med heat. Then simmer over a low heat until the butter turns brown, about 3-5 mins. Add the broken chocolate and stir this until melted. Remove from the heat, then whisk in the egg yolks. Transfer to a large clean mixing bowl.

In another large clean bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks using an electric mixer. Mix the almonds and sugar into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the egg whites with a large metal spoon.

Pour the mixture into the prepped baking tin, bake for 40 mins and then start testing every 5 mins, the skewer needs to come out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin, then chill until needed.

Just before serving dust with the cocoa powder and decorate with your chosen berries.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did! x