Bitter Chocolate and Hazelnut Cake with Mixed Berries Coulis (MasterChef)

We love chocolate and of course, I'm not going to miss out baking this delicious fudgy chocolate cake...

This chocolate cake recipe originates from Gracie, a junior Australian MasterChef contestant in the year 2011. Being gluten intolerant and using minimal amount of gluten, Gracie had baked this almost flour-less chocolate cake during the MasterChef contest. According to the recipe, she chose not to fully-cook her larger cake and so her cake looked soft and gooey when she served it with her raspberry coulis. I prefer my chocolate cake not to be too soggy with the coulis and so I have fully cooked mine to a nice, moist and fudgy texture. As mentioned in its name, this cake is not sweet at all and is very delicious to eat with a little sweetness and tang from the extra mixed berries coulis.

We never say "no" to nice and moist chocolate cakes...

Making the cake

Baking the cake

Cooking the coulis

bon appétit

Here's the recipe from Australian MasterChef 
(with my modification and notes in blue)

Ingredients:

Cake
400g premium dark chocolate, broken into pieces
(I used the 70% cocoa one)
375g unsalted butter, chopped
9 eggs, separated
300g caster sugar
1/2 cup plain flour, sifted
60g hazelnut meal

Raspberry coulis
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
(I used frozen mixed berries)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

Double cream to serve (I didn't serve my cake with this)

Method:

Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 26cm spring form cake tin with baking paper.

For cake, combine chocolate and butter in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Once chocolate has melted, remove from heat and cool slightly.

Beat egg yolks with whisk and add 225g of the measured sugar until well blended. Fold into chocolate mix and stir in sifted flour and hazelnut meal.

In an electric mixer, beat egg whites and remaining sugar until soft peaks form. Fold egg whites gently but thoroughly into chocolate mixture. Pour into cake tin, and bake for one hour. (I realised that the cake will rise and has big cracks on its top when it is freshly baked. The cracks will not be obvious when the cake shrinks after cooling.)

For coulis, place raspberries and sugar into saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for approximately ten minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture starts to thicken. Press mixture through a fine mesh strainer, using a spatula to extract as much of the liquid as possible. Discard skins and seeds. Stir in lemon juice.

Serve slices of cake with raspberry coulis and double cream. I reckon that the cake will be extra delicious if it's served with double cream but we are happy enough to eat this with just the mixed berries coulis.

Note: Using 1/3 of the recipe and a 14 cm round loose-bottom cake tin, I baked my cake at 150°C fan forced for 50 min (with the tested skewer comes out clean).

Happy Baking
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