Birthday Madness!

Dessert, dessert and more dessert. February is the month of birthdays! I have five over the next few weeks! I will be a busy baker! Last night was Trisha's birthday and I must say, she has good taste. She requested flourless chocolate cake. As you can imagine, without flour, the cake is very dense. It is almost like a slab of fudge! I serve it with raspberry sauce and whipped cream to provide some light flavors to offset the rich, dark chocolate. It is so delicious! You will see in my picture that I used a stencil to dust powdered sugar on the top. I got a package of cake stencils from Michaels and they were only like $5. Everybody "oohs" and "ahhs" though. That is one baking tip I offer... it is all about the presentation!

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Cake:

1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup sugar

9 oz. bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao)

9 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

1 cup unsalted butter

6 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

Raspberry Sauce:

2 cups raspberries

1/4 cup sugar

Whipped Cream:

2 cups whipping cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Cake:

Preheat oven to 300°F. Grease one 10" spring form cake pan. Line the bottom with wax paper. Cover the outside of the pan with tinfoil to keep water out.
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 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 and vanilla. 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 for 1 hour. The center will still look wet. Chill cake overnight in the pan. Invert onto a serving plate. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.

Raspberry Sauce:

Put raspberries and sugar in a saucepan. Heat until sugar is dissolved. Blend in a blender. Push berries through a sieve to eliminate seeds.

Whipped Cream:

In a large bowl, whip cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla until stiff peaks form.