Flourless Chocolate Cakelettes
I must get a new recipe to experiment with in every Bon Appetit. This month the cover shows a flourless chocolate cake. I had to try it out and thought it would be a perfect addition to the teas I'll be cooking for. I wanted to make finger food so I cut each piece small and coated them with the ganache topping. They were intense dark chocolate. These were taste tested at the office and with friends and found to be perfect for chocoloholics but a little messy on the fingers. The recipe makes a whole cake. I can't imagine having an entire slice. My niece was in town and helped with the ganache coating. She's becoming quite a cook and has started her own blog. 
For the tea I cut them into small rounds and put them in papers. I had melted white chocolate just begging to decorate some. I must say they looked quite snazzy on a tiered tea tray. The 1 inch circles were just the right size.
Here's how I did the cakelettes:
Cake
1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
9 tablespoons (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon)
unsalted butter, diced
18 ounces bittersweet chocolate - chopped
6 large eggs
Ganache
1 cup heavy whipping cream
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Lightly sweetened whipped cream
For cake: Preheat oven to 350
Butter 8 x 8 square pan. Combine 1 cup water and sugar in small saucepan. Bring toboil over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
Melt butter in microwave and add chocolate whisking until smooth. Whisk sugar syrup into chocolate; cool slightly. Beat eggs and add a spoonful of the chocolate to the eggs to temper then add the egg mixture to the chocolate and whisk until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan. Place cake pan in large roasting pan. Add enough hot water to roasting pan to come halfway up sides of cake pan.
Bake cake until center no longer moves when pan is gently shaken. Check at 40 minutes. Remove from water bath; transfer to rack. Cool completely in pan. Remove cake. I used a silicone pan which made the unmolding very easy. Lining the pan with foil would also be helpful. Using 1" circle cutter cut rounds dipping the cutter in hot water between each cut. For squares cut the entire cake into 1" squares.
Ganache
Bring whipping cream to simmer in microwave. Add chocolate and whisk until smooth.
Cool slightly. Frost the tops of each cakelette with the ganache. Refrigerate until set. Decorate with nuts, coconut, nonpariels or white chocolate - or whatevery you like!
