Butter cakes, chiffon cakes, angel food cakes, black forest cakes. Gah, why do I have to choose?

But sometimes, choose I must. Because I can only bake so many cakes in a week. And the cleaners and security guards at our place (aka. my food testers) can also only eat so much cake in a week before they start running away when they see me holding a box!

Today I baked a cake that I have been meaning to try for a while. See, I have these stacks (and stacks) of recipes. Some are in the MUST-TRY stack, while others are in the MAYBE-ONE-DAY-WHEN-THERE-IS-NOTHING-TO-DO pile. 

I love Google. 🙂

Naturally this cake recipe was taken from the MUST-TRY stack. I mean, “Seriously Rich” Chocolate Cake? Oh-my-lordy, YEAH!

Other than the title (Yes, I can be quite shallow at times), the other factor that caught my interest was that the egg whites are whisked before being folded into the cake. Many of my favorite cake recipes make use of this method so I was pretty sure this cake ain’t gonna disappoint me.

Since this is a gluten-free cake, it will be a (tiny) tad on the heavier side. But that is a good thing because chocolate cakes are good when they are slightly dense. As I have mentioned earlier, because the meringue was folded into the cake, this was not as dense as it can be. In fact for a gluten-free cake, I was surprised at how light this was compared to so many other types of cakes I have made.

And after all this mutter-nutter, it is time for me to show you how to make this cake!

Add chopped chocolate and butter into a heavy-bottom saucepan. Make sure that the saucepan is completely dry! Over low heat, melt the chocolate and butter until you get a smooth mixture.

Into this, add the almond meal (aka, ground almond), egg yolks and liqueur, if you are using. Stir until well-combined.

Set this aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy.

Gradually add the sugar, and whisk until stiff peaks form.

Transfer about 1/3 of the meringue into the egg yolk batter. Beat it in to stabilize the mixture.

Gently fold the remaining meringue in 2 batches until no white streaks remain.

Pour the batter into a lightly greased and lined 9-inch Springform pan. Lift the pan about 10cm off your work top and drop it to remove the larger air bubbles. Repeat this two more times.

Bake the cake at 170°C for 30-35 minutes or until an inserted skewer emerges cleanly.

Cool the cake in the tin. As with most gluten-free cakes, the cake will sink as it cools. It is okay – please do not panic.

Cut a slice of the cake, sieve some cocoa powder or it and top with whipped cream, or ice cream or crème fraîche. Just eat it as it is. It’s seriously good!

I am linking this to Cook & Celebrate hosted by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Yen from Eat Your Heart Out and Diana from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe!

Have you cooked or baked something for Christmas? If so do share your creations with us! Please note that your post has to be a current post (ie, posted in the month of December 2015) and remember to link it back to us: Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Yen from GoodyFoodies and Diana from The Domestic Goddess Wannabe. Happy cooking and baking folks! 🙂