Almost Flourless Chocolate Cake -- #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Who doesn’t love a flourless chocolate torte? So dense and rich. Many are made with nuts, which we love, but not everyone likes them or can eat them. This recipe, which I spotted in the Washington Post and have adapted, uses so little flour you almost won’t spot it on the list of ingredients, but it makes the cake easy to prepare and light on the tongue. The original suggests a gluten-free version, substituting a gluten-free flour blend, though we have not tried that. 

We used bittersweet chocolate; you could use a mix of dark and bittersweet for a slightly sweeter taste, but be sure to use at least 60 percent cocoa solids. If you prefer a sweeter cake, use a chocolate that’s around 60 percent cocoa. 

This cake is fabulous served warm with ice cream. You might prefer whipped cream and berries. If you eat it at room temperature, you will not be unhappy, pinky swear.

Spring flowers optional.

Almost Flourless Chocolate Cake

7 ounces dark or bittersweet chocolate (60 to 70 percent cocoa solids) 

14 tablespoons butter, plus more for greasing the pan

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon fine salt

ice cream, whipped cream, or berries for serving (optional) 

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Use your 8 or 9-inch round cake pan to trace a circle on parchment paper, then cut the round. Butter the bottom of the pan. Lay in the parchment paper circle and butter the paper.

Use your preferred method to melt the chocolate and butter. Remove from heat and whisk in the sugar until incorporated. The mixture will be slightly gritty.

Whisk in the eggs, one at a time. Don’t worry if the batter looks a bit slimy. 

Add the flour and salt and whisk or stir until the batter is thick and shiny. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25 to 27 minutes, or until the top is shiny and a bit crackly. It should be slightly jiggly in the center.

Transfer to a wire rack and cool, in the pan, for 20 minutes. Invert pan onto a plate. Remove the parchment, then flip it back over. The cake will deflate a little as it cools; this is normal, the result of all those eggs. Cool slightly and serve warm, garnished as you prefer. 

8 servings.

And as you can see, it's perfect with flowers and champagne, for Mother's Day or any celebration! 

BETWEEN A WOK AND A DEAD PLACE: A Spice Shop Mystery (July 2023, Seventh St. Books)

From the cover: 

It's the Lunar New Year, and fortunes are about to change. 

 

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market, loves a good festival, especially one serving up tasty treats. So what could be more fun than a food walk in the city's Chinatown–International District, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit?

 

But when her friend Roxanne stumbles across a man's body in the Gold Rush, a long-closed residential hotel, questions leap out. Who was he? What was he doing in the dust-encrusted herbal pharmacy in the hotel's basement? Why was the pharmacy closed up—and why are the owners so reluctant to talk? 

 

With each new discovery, Pepper find herself asking new questions and facing more brick walls. 

 

Then questions arise about Roxanne and her relationship to Pepper's boyfriend Nate, away fishing in Alaska. Between her worries and her struggle to hire staff at the Spice Shop, Pepper has her hands and her heart full. Still, she can't resist the lure of the Gold Rush and its tangled history of secrets and lies stretching back nearly a century. 

 

But the killer is on her tail, driven by hidden demons and desires. As Pepper begins to expose the long-concealed truth, a bigger question emerges: Can she uncover the secrets of the Gold Rush Hotel without being pushed from the wok into the fire?

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery, will appear in July 2023. 

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.