Chocolate Cloud Cake
This quintessential fallen chocolate cake is a perfect summertime chocolate dessert. It requires no elaborate decorating, just a generous cloud of lightly sweetened whipped cream spread over at the last minute. Bake it in the morning and you’ll have the rest of the day for summer activities. Â
The cake is delightfully rich yet light, and the chocolate and the whipped cream marry beautifully to form a wonderful taste partnership. Despite being a delicate cake, it slices well and maintains its rustic beauty on the plate.
Although the original Chocolate Cloud Cake recipe, from Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts, is relatively straightforward in terms of technique, first-time bakers may encounter two challenges. The first is keeping track of which ingredients go together and which types of bowls to use. In the version below, the ingredients are listed in groups according to their usage in the recipe. To address the bowl concern, the Special Tools and Equipment section provides suggested mixing bowl sizes for each ingredient group.
The second challenge, commonly encountered with slightly underbaked chocolate cakes, is determining the ideal moment to remove the cake from the oven. Sax’s original recipe suggests a baking time range of 35 to 40 minutes. Based on my personal experience and that of a friend who has made this multiple times, we have found that 37 minutes is the sweet spot, when the cake is just set and still creamy.
With this cake determining its doneness is not reliant on a cake tester but rather on observation and touch. The recipe directions provide more specific guidance on this.
Apart from the formatting of the ingredients, the only other modification I made from Sax’s original recipe is reducing the amount of sugar by 2 tablespoons.
To ensure the best results, it is essential to use high-quality chocolate with a high cocoa content, preferably 55% or higher. I have had excellent results with Guittard’s Lever du Soleil 61%, which can be found at the online pastry source lepicerie.com. A 60% Ghirardelli chocolate, labeled Bittersweet, widely available in most stores, would also be an excellent choice.
A small side of Raspberry Sauce is a nice extra touch.
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:
1½ 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
- Place chocolate in bowl 1 and melt over a double boiler or in microwave. Beat in room temperature butter until melted. Set aside.
- 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.
- In bowl 3, beat the egg whites with the salt until soft peaks. Slowly beat in the sugar and whip until just firm meringue.
- 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.
- Pour batter into bowl and gently smooth the top.
- 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.
- 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:
- In chilled bowl, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla until just firm. Don’t overwhip.
- Just before serving, spread whipped cream in the caved in center of the cake.
- Dust lightly with cocoa powder and/or place chocolate shavings on the whipped cream.
- Release the sides of the springform and slice.
- Store leftovers in the refrigerator.
