The Friday Baking Project
Chocolate Cloud Cake

Chocolate Cloud Cake

Yield: One 8†cake

# of Servings:  8 to 10

Ingredients

The Cake:

8 oz (227 g) 61% to 64% chocolate, wafers or broken up
4 oz butter, cut into pieces, room temperature

4 egg yolks (save whites for next ingredient group)
2 eggs
½ cup (3.5 oz / 99 g) sugar

4 egg whites
Pinch of salt
¼ cup +2 tbl sugar (2.7 oz / 76 g) sugar

Finishing:

1 ½ cups heavy cream
3 tbl cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate shavings or cocoa powder, as needed

Special equipment needed:

• 8†springform pan and parchment paper circle. 
• Stand or handheld mixer with wire whip attachment. 
• Three mixing bowls; Bowl 1 (small) for the chocolate and butter, Bowl 2 (large) for the yolks and whole eggs (this is where the final mixing takes place), and Bowl 3, a stand mixer bowl or bowl for a handheld mixer. 

Pre-recipe preparations:

• Line the pan with a circle of parchment paper. You can use a tiny dab of butter on the bottom to hold the paper in place. Do not butter the pan or the parchment. 
• Preheat oven to 350 °F

Directions

1. Place chocolate in bowl 1 and melt over a double boiler or in microwave. Beat in room temperature butter until melted. Set aside.
2. Place yolks, whole eggs, and sugar in bowl 2. Whisk just until combined. Mix in the warm chocolate and butter mixture, scraping the bottom of the bowl to make sure the chocolate is thoroughly mixed in. 
3. In bowl 3, beat the egg whites with the salt until soft peaks. Slowly beat in the sugar and whip until just firm meringue. 
4. Stir ¼ of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten. Fold in remaining whites just until there are no remaining streaks of egg white.
5. Pour batter into bowl and gently smooth the top.
6. Bake until the center has risen, with cracks around it, and it no longer moves when pan is touched, between 35 and 38 minutes. Do not bake longer than 40 minutes as it will lose its creaminess.
7. Remove from the oven and place on a rack to completely cool, leaving the cake in the spingform pan. The cake will fall in the center. It can sit at room temperature until dessert. 

Finishing:

1. In chilled bowl, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla until just firm. Don’t overwhip. 
2. Just before serving, spread whipped cream in the caved in center of the cake. 
3. Dust lightly with cocoa powder and/or place chocolate shavings on the whipped cream.
4. Release the sides of the springform and slice.
5. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

Notes:

¹ Classic Home Desserts deserves a place on every home baker’s bookshelf

Recommended work schedule for this dessert:

• Day before: measure the chocolate and sugar, gather the springform and mixing bowls, cut parchment paper circle. Make raspberry sauce, if using. Make chocolate shavings, refrigerate.
• Morning of: Bake the cake, clean up. Place bowl and wire whip for the whipped cream in the refrigerator. Head out to the beach.
• During dinner prep: make whipped cream topping.
• After dinner: spread whipped cream on cake and serve.