Fallen Chocolate Cake

This fallen chocolate cake is fudgy and packed with deep chocolate flavor. It is the perfect flourless cake for any occasion. 

If you are looking for an understated amazing chocolate cake, a simple recipe like a fallen chocolate cake that has a rustic, yet captivating look and deeply chocolaty flavor is just perfect. Although it is simple, it packed a lot of delicious complex flavors thanks to the extra virgin olive oil and dark chocolate.

Ingredients

• Chocolate - I recommend using darker chocolate. Milk chocolate will be too sweet and will not mix well with the rest of the ingredients. I recommend using bars of dark or bittersweet chocolate (anything 60% cocoa or over).
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Believe it or not, but the fruity and floral notes in extra virgin olive oil go perfectly with chocolate. I highly suggest you use good quality oil. One that you would want to use to drizzle on your food or dip bread in. Give the oil a taste before you use it and see if you enjoy the flavor as it is. You will be surprised at how different brands of extra virgin olive oil taste!
• Sea salt - You can also use kosher salt in this recipe, but I think that sea salt works best in this cake.
• Almond flour - Almond flour helps with the texture, but if you want to add more to the flavor, you can substitute the almond flour with hazelnut flour, pistachio flour, or even finely ground pepitas.
• Sugar - You should use granulated sugar in this recipe, but you can experiment with using brown sugar in the chocolate mixture. You should not use anything except granulated sugar in the meringue.
• Eggs - Use large eggs. I recommend using three bowls to separate your yolks and whites. Use one bowl for the yolks, one for the whites. The last bowl is where you first separate the whites from the yolk, that way if the yolk breaks into the white, it contaminates that one egg white instead of the whole batch. Nothing sucks more than wasting 5 egg whites because the yolk breaks into the whole bowl right at the end.
• Vanilla extract - I always add a bit of vanilla to round out the flavors more. You can also add half a teaspoon of chocolate extract if you have any available.

Baking tips

Baking this cake isn't that much different from baking other cakes - the main difference being that you use a springform pan instead of a standard round cake pan.

You should always ensure you liberally grease and coat the pan with cocoa powder. I also like to line the bottom with parchment paper. The sides of the cake should pull away from the pan when its finished, which we want for easier cake removal.

Do not attempt to open the springform pan until the cake is fully cooled. I also recommend running a knife between the cake and the pan before you try to release the cake

Add one big spoonful of the meringue into the chocolate mixture to help loosen the chocolate even more, this makes it easier to fold in the remaining meringue. I also recommend folding the meringue in batches.

Go slow, bringing the bottom of the mixture to the top to help incorporate the mixture together until there are no streaks of white. Be as gentle as possible because you do not want to deflate the meringue more than necessary.

No matter what, do not open the oven door until at least 10 minutes before the recommended baking time.

Why it works

This fallen chocolate cake is amazing on several levels. It is an absolutely gorgeous cake with rustic cracks on top that break off into shards of chocolate meringue. It contrasts beautifully to the deeply chocolaty and fudgy chocolate cake underneath.

The use of extra virgin olive oil adds dimension and a fruity/floral undertone that creates a nice complexity to the chocolate.

This delicious cake also tests out some of your baking skills. You practice melting chocolate - I recommend using a double boiler for that. You also need to make a simple meringue and whip it to a medium peek. Folding techniques for the meringue into the chocolate is also used. All of this takes patience and care and is so satisfying when you get it right and end up with an absolutely gorgeous and delicious cake.

Storage

If you have any cake left to store, you can keep it in an airtight container an it will last at room temperature for about five days. I prefer to wrap the cake on a plate, but if you would like to use a storage container, I recommend cutting the cake into slices.

You can also freeze the cake. I recommend cutting the cake into slices. I do not recommend attempting to freeze the whole cake, unless you are okay with the entirety of the meringue topping crumbling off.

Related recipes

If you loved this cake, you may also love this chocolate olive oil cake and this lemon lavender semolina cake. This honey cake is one of my favorites. You may also like to try this pistachio pound cake.