Chocolate Cloud Cake

Clouds make me think of candy floss (Cotton Candy for you Americans!) and Katy Perry (in the California Girls video) but when you think of this Chocolate Cloud Cake I want you to think nice fluffy cream!

Katy Perry on Candy Floss Clouds

I made this cake for my mum and aunty's combined birthdays. It's another gem from the amazing Nigella who I got the recipe for Nutella Cake from. It's also Gluten Free! Yaaaaaay! I don't like to Google for Gluten free recipes anymore, they're all like 'half a cup of rice flour, half a cup or something-else-I-don't-have-in-the-pantry-flour, one teaspoon of tycloseblahblah' as if I bake Gluten free all the time and have those things in the local supermarket! Instead I look for 'flourless' cakes! Genius, I know!

The texture of this cake almost reminds me of a chocolate mousse, but with a bit more cakeyness holding it together. You may think that is a lot of cream to throw on top (I don't even like cream!) but it goes perfectly with the cake and leaves you wanting more!

Chocolate Cloud Cake
Adapted from Nigella Lawson

Ingredients
250g Dark Chocolate (70% Cocoa)
125g Unsalted Butter (softened)
6 Eggs (2 whole, 4 separated)
175g Caster Sugar
Zest from an Orange

Topping:
500ml Cream
1t Vanilla Extract
1/2 t Cocoa (to sprinkle on top!)

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line a 23cm springform cake tin.
• Melt the chocolate in the microwave in short 10 second bursts then add the butter and let it melt together.
• Beat the two whole eggs and the four egg yolks with 75g of the sugar,
• Add the chocolate mixture and orange zest to the eggy mixture.
• In a separate bowl, beat the eggs whites until foamy then start adding the rest of the sugar a tablespoon at a time then beat until the egg whites hold their shape (not too stiff though). Remember your bowl and whisk/beaters need to be oil free-so wash them in boiling water first!
• Mix a spoonful of egg white mixture in with the chocolate mixture to lighten it up a little then fold in the rest.
• Pour into the cake tin and bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until the cake has risen and the top is cracked and the centre is no longer wobbly.
• Cool cake in its tin on a wire rack (do not take the cake out of the tin). The middle will collapse a bit and look like a crater, don't worry it's supposed to look like that!
• When the cake is cool and you can't wait any longer to try this cake (it's worth the wait, I promise!) pop it out on to a cake stand or plate and carefully remove the sides from the cake tin.
• Whip the cream until soft then add the vanilla. Keeping whipping up a storm until the cream is firm but not stiff.
• This is the fun part! Plop the cream on top of the cake and smooth out to the edges carefully then sprinkle  the cocoa on top using a sieve.
• Enjoy a little slice of this heavenly cake with a nice cup of coffee or milk.

The cake will look like a giant fail at this point, but don't worry, that's how it's supposed to look (trust me!)

Once cake is fully cooled, place on a plate and remove the sides of the tin. Now it's the fun part!

Pour the whole lot of cream on top of the previously ugly cake, I know it looks like lots but you'll thank me later, I know it. (by the way that is my mum modelling in the photo, ever wondered where I got my baking genes from?)

Spread the cream over the cake gently, it's very therapeutic, in fact you might want to whip up cream just for the sake of it in the future.

Sprinkle cocoa over this heavenly cake and enjoy! It truly is like biting into a cloud! You can see why I like recipes that don't over complicate like this one right? So easy to make, yet unbelievably delicious! Do you have a favourite gluten free recipe? I'd love to hear!