Flourless chocolate, prune & hazelnut cake
Served with hazelnut whipped cream, this chocolate, prune and hazelnut cake is dense, decadent and gluten-free.
- 55 mins cooking
- Serves 10
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Ingredients
Flourless chocolate, prune & hazelnut cake
- 1 cup (170g) pitted prunes, chopped finely
- 1/2 cup (125ml) hazelnut-flavoured liquer
- 200 gram (6½ ounces) dark (semi-sweet) chocolate, chopped coarsely
- 125 gram (4 ounces) butter, softened
- 5 eggs, separated
- 2/3 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar
- 1 1/4 cup (180g) ground hazelnuts
- 2 teaspoon dutch-processed cocoa, for dusting
Hazelnut cream
- 300 millilitre pouring cream
- 2 tablespoon icing sugar (confectioners' sugar)
- 2 tablespoon hazelnut-flavoured liqueur
Method
Flourless chocolate, prune & hazelnut cake
- 1Place prunes and liqueur in a small saucepan; bring to the boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes or until liqueur is reduced by half. Remove from heat; cool.
- 2Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease a deep 22cm (9-inch) round cake pan; line base and side with baking paper.
- 3Stir chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool to room temperature.
- 4Beat egg yolks and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until thick and creamy. Transfer mixture to a large bowl; fold in prune mixture, chocolate mixture and ground hazelnuts.
- 5Beat egg whites in a small bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form; fold into chocolate mixture, in two batches. Pour mixture into pan.
- 6Bake cake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with moist crumbs attached. Stand cake in pan for 15 minutes; turn cake, top-side up, onto a wire rack to cool.
- 7To make hazelnut cream, beat cream and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until firm peaks form. Stir in liqueur.
- 8Dust cake with cocoa; serve with hazelnut cream.
Notes
The cake can be made a day ahead; store in an air-tight container at room temperature. Hazelnut cream is best made on the day of serving.