Grrrr…this was a disaster. I wanted to make a flourless chocolate cake for my boss’ birthday since she has a wheat allergy. I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com that looked promising although I was a little nervous about the steam bath cooking method. Sadly, I also attempted making this the day after our wine tasting. Although I was not hung over, I didn’t get to bed until about 2:30 am and then got up at 8 am so we could make a 9:30 am screening of The Dark Knight. When I finally settled down to start this cake, my eyes were already starting to close again and my head a bit fuzzy…which should explain the huge mis-read I made when it came to the key ingredient in the cake. The recipe called for 18 (1 oz) squares of chocolate (presumably the Baker’s squares). I was working from a big hunk of chocolate, I just went with the number of ounces which I read as 1 oz. In reality, I should have used 18 oz of chocolate (i.e. 18 – 1 oz squares). So, my “rich, chocolate” cake had about 5% of the amount of chocolate it was supposed to have…and that steam bath cooking method? The water leaked into the springform despite me wrapping the whole pan in tin foil. What is the light, coffee-colored goo at the bottom of the cake in this picture? I have no idea…maybe like baked egg with a light cocoa flavor? Anyway, here is the recipe if anyone wants to attempt it. I am pretty sure I will never try this one again….I just read the recipe AGAIN and noticed a step I hadn’t previously seen before: chill cake overnight! Oh well, I doubt that would have saved a cake missing 95% of the key flavoring ingredient.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Flourless-Chocolate-Cake-I/Detail.aspx:
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
18 (1 ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate
1 cup unsalted butter
6 eggs

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease one 10 inch round cake pan and set aside.
In a small saucepan over medium heat combine the water, salt and sugar. Stir until completely dissolved and set aside.
Either in the top half of a double boiler or in a microwave oven melt the bittersweet chocolate. Pour the chocolate into the bowl of an electric mixer.
Cut the butter into pieces and beat the butter into the chocolate, 1 piece at a time. Beat in the hot sugar-water. Slowly beat in the eggs, one at a time.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Have a pan larger than the cake pan ready, put the cake pan in the larger pan and fill the pan with boiling water halfway up the sides of the cake pan.
Bake cake in the water bath at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 45 minutes. The center will still look wet. Chill cake overnight in the pan. To unmold, dip the bottom of the cake pan in hot water for 10 seconds and invert onto a serving plate.