Spoil yourself or your loved ones with a flour-less chocolate cake this Valentine’s day, or any other day. I love this cake, it is foolproof and tastes great. You can serve it with just a dusting of icing sugar and a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.  Or if you are in the mood, dress it up like I did.

Ingredients:

Cake:

200 g dark chocolate 70% cocoa (use 50% cocoa if 70% is too strong for your taste)
50 g unsalted butter
1/3 cup caster sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup almond meal
1 tea-spoon or vanilla essence

White chocolate ganache:

50 g white chocolate
2 Table-spoons thickened cream

Dark chocolate ganache:

75g dark chocolate
3 table-spoons thickened cream

Topping:

1/2 cup crushed pistachios.
1 punnet fresh raspberries.

For cake, melt chocolate and butter in a bain-marie over the stove or in microwave on low taking care not to burn it. Add sugar and mix well with a wooden spoon, then add vanilla and egg one by one after mixing it into the chocolate mixture really well.  Add almond meal and mix well. Butter and line the bottom of a 20 cm baking dish with baking paper cut to fit and pour cake batter into it. Bake in a 180 degree Celsius oven for about 20 minutes or  when you insert a skewer it comes out clean. Do not let it dry. Take out of tray and let it cool.

For the ganache, melt chocolate in a bain-marie or microwave, when melted mix in the cream. Place in fridge for 10 minutes to cool down.

Note: for the heart-shaped cake I used two tins, and divided the cake mixture between the two.

Cover the small heart with white chocolate ganache. Cover the big cake with dark chocolate ganache. Put the pistachios in a flat plate and hold the cake and roll sides into nuts. Using a spoon sprinkle the rest on top. Place the small cake on top of the big one. Decorate the small one with the raspberries and a sprinkle a little bit of the pistachios on the visible top of the big cake.