Chocolate Truffle Cake

I've made this amazing cake several times, but never posted the recipe before - I did a copycat post on it, but now it's time to save this in my own archives, too. See, I never want to lose it - it's a really great recipe, and it's a perfect standby when you need a heavy dessert, and not really know how many people you'll have to serve. It can serve anything from 8 to 18 - all depending on greed and what else you have been serving.

Chocolate Truffle Cake
From the Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum (who has an excellent blog!)

450 g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
225 g unsalted butter
6 large eggs
40-50 g sugar
butter for the baking pan

Start by buttering a springform pan, 20 or 24 cm in diameter. Cut out a piece of parchment paper or teflon sheet, butter this too, and place into the pan. Wrap the pan in double layers of aluminum foil, as it will be standing in a pan of water.

Preheat the oven to 220°C, and bring about 2 litres of water to a boil.

Melt the chocolate and the butter together - the microwave works perfectly fine here. Stir together. Crack the eggs into a bowl that will fit onto a small saucepan, and add the sugar. Pour water into the small saucepan, and place on medium heat and top with the bowl - the bowl must not touch the water. (This is a double boiler, or a water bath.)

Beat eggs with an electric beater while heating until they are slightly warm to the touch. Remove from heat and beat very vigorously for at least five minutes - the egg mixture should become very pale and fluffy.

Mix the eggs and the chocolate carefully, until you see no more streaks. Pour into the prepared pan. Place pan on a large rimmed cookie sheet and pour the hot water into the sheet so it reaches about half way up the sides of the cake pan.

Bake for five minutes. Cover the tin with aluminum foil and bake for ten more minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for 45 minutes. Wrap in plastic and place in fridge for at least three hours or overnight, until the cake is very firm.

Take it out of the fridge, and loosen the cake from the pan with the back of a knife. Open the springform mechanism and remove the sides. Invert the cake onto a plate, and gently remove the bottom of the pan and the parchment paper. Invert back onto the plate you want to serve it on.

You can now place the cake in the fridge again for up to two weeks (or so I hear - it's *never* lasted more than a day here) but remove about 20 minutes before serving. It should be at room temperature, so it's soft and flavorful. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

Chokladtryffeltårta