Fabulous Flourless Chocolate Cake

This past weekend, Ju had a few friends over at their place for a holiday get together and I was in charge of dessert. It proved to be the perfect opportunity to try out some gluten free/no flour recipes. I made a cake and some cookies, the cake made it to the party, the cookies were consumed too quickly (but not before I took pictures, so I will be posting the recipe). Both used no flour, lots of chocolate and cocoa and were delicious. The Flourless cake is thanks to the recipe on www.epicurious.com; it is heavy, dense, almost fudge like in texture and is a real treat for chocoholics. I am sure it will be an equal success among those who are avoiding gluten and for those with no gluten issues. This cake is easy to make with only 5 ingredients; it is rather heavy so a 9" cake serves 12 people. You can get creative with the topping - I macerated very ripe raspberries with some sugar and lime juice, then used a potato masher to make a thick pulp which I poured on top of the cake. I wanted to strain it and make a coulis but only had a half pint of berries on hand so that is an option for you folks reading this. 
One change I made from their recipe, was using a 9" springform pan as I do not have an 8". I doubled the recipe and it made 4 ramekins in addition to the 9" pan. Perfect if you want to serve individual cakes for a small group.
This one is for Mitra, who had the best reaction to my foray into flourlessness :) Enjoy.

Skill Level: Medium

Serves: 12 - 14

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 oz good quality bittersweet chocolate (do not use unsweetened)
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 

Raspberry topping:

• 1/2 pint (one clam shell) raspberries
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
• juice of 1/2 a lime

METHOD: 

1. Pre heat oven to 375 degrees F
2. Butter the sides of a 9" round baking pan and line the bottom with parchment paper and set aside
3. Break chocolate into small pieces. Place a glass bowl (or use a double boiler) over a pot of simmering water on the stove. Reduce heat to medium and add chocolate and butter. Stir until most of it has melted, then remove from heat and continue to stir until all of it is melted 
4. Add sugar and whisk. Then add eggs and mix well
5. Sift the cocoa powder over the chocolate mixture and mix until well combined
6. Pour the batter (it is quite thick) into the cake tin and give it a good thump on the counter so as to have a batter without any air pockets
7. Bake for 25 minutes, this does not rise because there is no baking powder, it will form a thin crust on top
8. Macerate the fruit with sugar and lime juice, allow it to sit for 10 minutes. Mash the fruit with a fork and pour it on top of the cake; it will not soak through even if you top the cake  up to 4 hours before serving
9. Cake keeps well for 1 week in an airtight container