Fallen Chocolate Cake

Now some might say that fallen chocolate cake sounds like a souffle gone terribly wrong, but they would be terribly wrong. Fallen chocolate cake is a nice fudgey cake gone terribly right.

Fallen Chocolate Cake (Adapted from BonAppetit)

1/2 c butter, cut into 1" pieces
3/4 sugar, divided (plus 2T for topping and additional for pan)
10 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2T oil
6 large eggs (4 of which are separated)
2T cocoa
1 t vanilla
1t salt

Topping
1 c heavy cream
1/2 c mascarpone
3T confectioner's sugar
Pomegranate seeds (optional)

Lightly butter a springform pan and dust with sugar. Tap out excess and set aside. Combine chocolate, oil, and butter in a heatproof bowl. Blast in 15 second increments in microwave until melted (or heat slowly over double-boiler). Set aside.

Separate 4 of the eggs. In a bowl take the 4 yolks, cocoa, vanilla, salt, 1/4 c sugar, and the 2 remaining eggs and whisk until smooth. Gradually whisk in the chocolate mixture to the egg mixture. Beat egg whites on high in a mixer until frothy. Gradually add 1/2 c sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Fold the egg whites into the chocolate in two batches. Scrape into the prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining 2 T sugar over the top. Bake at 350 for 35-35 minutes until the top cracks and cake is pulling away from the sides. Transfer to a wire rack and cool fully in pan.

Topping: In a medium bowl on high speed beat cream, mascarpone, and confectioner's sugar together until soft peaks form. Mound on top of cake and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds.

Pre-Fall

Post-Fall

This may look like a very fussy cake, but actually it is not. It looks quite impressive but is really quite simple to make. Since we were not going to eat the cake in one sitting (I wish we were), I serve the topping and pomegranate indivdually with each slice. I think you could also just serve it with straight up whipped cream, but the mascarpone does add a nice richness to the topping. The cake keeps well at room temperature.

This recipe was sitting around since 2013 to be tried. I don't know why I waited so long!

Comments

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