Chocolate cake with my new springform pan!

On Monday this week, we entertained some guests from Virginia (Aaron Ferkenstad and his fiance Djem)! And I wanted an excuse (as if I needed one) to use one of my Christmas presents: some springform pans. Those of you who don't know what those are, here's a picture. This kind of pan is usually used for cheesecakes.

Aaanyway, so I chose to make this recipe called Flourless Chocolate Cake. But I made a few modifications. It was delish. I thought it tasted kind of like fudge, it had that type of a consistency. Read on for my version of the cake.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

• 1/8 c. cocoa powder
• 4 oz. sweet butter (one stick)
• 10 oz. unsweetened baker's chocolate
• 8 eggs, separated
• 1/2 c. honey
• Pinch cream of tartar
• 9 inch springform pan

1. Heat oven to 275 degrees. Lightly butter the pan and dust with the cocoa powder, shaking off excess.
2. In a double boiler, melt chocolate and butter until smooth. Remove from heat and quickly beat in egg yolks. (And when they say quickly, they mean QUICKLY, because the eggs make the chocolate mixture thick in a matter of seconds!)
3. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy with an electric mixer on high speed. Slowly add honey and beat until medium peaks form when beaters are lifted. Don't overbeat. (I'm not sure what will happen if it does get overbeaten... but here's a picture of what I think are medium peaks...)
4. In thirds, gently fold egg whites into melted chocolate mixture. Pour into prepared pan and bake for at least 30 minutes, probably more like 40-45. You can test for doneness with a toothpick, but in the end, I went by look and feel. The top shouldn't look wet at all, and it shouldn't feel super squishy in the middle when you lightly touch it.

I thought about frosting it or dusting it with powdered sugar, but never got around to it. I actually didn't think it needed frosting, just a scoop of ice cream. The cake tastes like dark chocolate fudge. It's definitely not very sweet, but just sweet enough, at least for my tastes. If you prefer sweeter desserts, you may want to follow the original recipe which calls for semi-sweet chocolate and white sugar.

I give myself a C for presentation, but an A for taste. I definitely plan to make it again in the future! I especially like that the amount of sugar is minimal, and that there's no flour. And I love eggs' versatility.