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Six eggs cracked into a bowl on my bench at six in the evening, and I almost didn’t separate them. That’s the step people skip when they’re tired, and it’s the step that decides whether this cake turns out like a good brownie or like something you’d actually serve a guest with a small fork and a straight face. I separated them. The cake was better for it, as it almost always is.
This is the flourless chocolate and almond cake I keep coming back to when someone in the family has a birthday and also a wheat intolerance, or when I want dessert that reads as indulgent but isn’t built on a cup and a half of caster sugar. The sweetness here comes from medjool dates blitzed into the batter and a tablespoon of honey, which sounds like it might make a thin, sad cake. It doesn’t. Almond meal has enough body and natural oil to hold a proper crumb, and good dark chocolate does most of the flavour heavy lifting anyway.
Why almond meal does the work flour usually does
Almond meal isn’t flour’s understudy here, it’s doing a different job entirely. Where flour relies on gluten for structure, almond meal relies on its own fat content and the protein in whipped egg whites to hold air and shape. That’s why whisking the whites properly actually matters in this recipe and isn’t just a pastry chef being precious about it. Fold them in with a light hand and you get a cake with a crumb somewhere between a flourless chocolate torte and a dense sponge. Fold roughly and you’ll get something closer to fudge, which, to be fair, nobody at my table has ever complained about.
Nutrition Australia’s guidance on nuts points out they’re a good source of unsaturated fat and fibre compared with the refined flour they’re replacing here, which is a reasonable thing to know if you’re serving this to someone watching their intake for medical reasons, though I’d never call a chocolate cake a health food and I’m not about to start.
The dates are doing more than sweetening
I soak the medjool dates in hot water for ten minutes before blitzing, which softens them enough that the food processor doesn’t just chase them around the bowl. What you get isn’t just sugar, it’s a thick, almost caramel-like paste that adds moisture the cake would otherwise need butter for. I still use butter, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a butter-free cake. But I’ve dropped it from the two hundred grams a traditional flourless chocolate cake might ask for down to around a hundred and twenty, because the dates are carrying some of that richness themselves.
The honey at the end isn’t essential if you want to leave it out, the dates alone will get you close. I add it because a tablespoon rounds the sweetness out and stops the dark chocolate from reading as slightly bitter on the finish, which some people love and some people find a bit much for dessert.
What good dark chocolate actually changes
Buy the best dark chocolate you’re willing to pay for here, at least seventy per cent cocoa solids. This is not the cake to use up the back-of-the-pantry chocolate chips on. Cheaper eating chocolate often has more sugar and less actual cocoa butter, and in a recipe where chocolate is close to the entire flavour, that difference is obvious the moment it hits the pan and starts to melt. The smell changes too, there’s a depth to good couverture melting with butter that cheap chocolate just doesn’t give you, more cocoa and less sweet fog.
I melt mine over a double boiler rather than the microwave because I can watch it and pull it the second it’s smooth, no risk of seizing or scorching the edges while the middle’s still solid.
Ingredients
- 200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa or higher), roughly chopped
- 120g unsalted butter, chopped
- 180g medjool dates, pitted and soaked in hot water for 10 minutes, drained
- 1 tbsp honey
- 5 eggs, separated, at room temperature
- 200g almond meal
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of sea salt
- Cocoa powder, for dusting
- Fresh raspberries or orange segments, to serve
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170°C (150°C fan-forced). Grease a 22cm round springform tin and line the base with baking paper.
- Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Blitz the drained dates with the honey and 2 tablespoons of warm water in a food processor until you get a smooth, thick paste.
- Whisk the egg yolks into the melted chocolate mixture one at a time, then stir through the date paste, almond meal, vanilla and sea salt until well combined.
- In a clean, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites to firm (not stiff and dry) peaks.
- Fold a third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to loosen it, then gently fold through the remaining whites in two batches, keeping as much air in as you can.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the edges are set and the centre still has a slight wobble.
- Cool in the tin for 15 minutes before releasing the springform sides. Cool completely on a wire rack, the cake will sink slightly in the middle, that’s normal and part of its charm.
- Dust with cocoa powder and serve with fresh raspberries or orange segments.
Serving it properly
Serve this at room temperature rather than straight from the fridge, the texture firms up too much when it’s cold and you lose that slight fudginess through the middle. A dollop of thick natural yoghurt or a spoon of mascarpone works better here than cream, which I find a bit heavy against the density of the cake itself. If you want a citrus lift, orange segments do more for this cake than raspberries alone, the bitterness in the pith plays nicely against the dark chocolate. I learned that by accident one Christmas when I ran out of berries and raided the fruit bowl instead.
A variation worth trying, and one that isn’t
Swap half the almond meal for hazelnut meal if you want something closer to a Ferrero Rocher flavour, it works, and roasting the hazelnut meal lightly first in a dry pan brings out even more of that flavour before it goes into the batter. What doesn’t work, in my opinion, is trying to make this with coconut sugar instead of the dates and honey. I’ve tried it twice now and both times the cake came out drier and the sweetness sat on top rather than through it, so I’ve stopped recommending that swap even though I know some readers prefer to avoid dates for the carbohydrate content.
This cake also freezes well, wrapped tightly once completely cooled, which makes it a reasonable thing to bake ahead if you’re cooking for visitors over a long weekend and don’t want dessert hanging over you on the day. If dense chocolate desserts are your thing generally, I’d also point you toward the raw cacao and avocado mousse I wrote up a while back, it’s a lighter, faster option for a weeknight, and the macadamia lime cheesecake if you want something naturally sweetened but not chocolate-forward.
Storing what’s left of it
It keeps well in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days, and I’d argue it actually improves on day two once the flavours have had a chance to settle. Bring it back to room temperature before serving rather than eating it cold out of the fridge, which is a mistake I still make sometimes standing at the open fridge door at ten at night. Healthdirect’s general advice on refined sugar intake is worth a look if you’re trying to shift more of your baking toward naturally sweetened options generally, it’s a reasonable starting point without being preachy about it.
What I like about this cake, beyond the taste, is that it doesn’t apologise for being a dessert. It’s not pretending to be health food dressed up in cocoa powder. It’s a proper, rich, occasion-worthy cake that happens to be gentler on refined sugar and happens to work for anyone avoiding gluten, and sometimes that’s enough of a reason to make it on a Tuesday for no occasion at all.
– Mei Lin, Golden Door Living kitchen
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