Chocolate Cloud Cake
Introduction
This delicious Chocolate Cloud Cake is the most requested cake in my repertoire. As I’m in Costa Rica, I’ve called my cake Queque Nube de Chocolate. Costa Ricans quaintly use the word “queque” (pronounced keh-keh) for “cake” which is easy to remember and fun to say! “Nube” means Cloud. Now there’s your Spanish lesson for today!
Queque Nube de Chocolate is effortlessly chic. It’s flourless, too, and requires only 4 ingredients: chocolate, butter, eggs and sugar. It is so extremely chocolatey! The texture is intensely fudgy but also light as a cloud.
Much depends on the quality of the ingredients you use, especially the chocolate! Do use the best quality that you can find and afford – I like to use chocolate from Be Here Now Cacao, my personal Costa Rican favourite, made with love by Kelley! If I’m out of this Caribbean chocolate, I go for Lindt, minimum 70% chocolate.
Some advice on the eggs: you will need to extract 4 egg whites to whip for this recipe. Of course, separating egg whites from yolks is a bit of an art and doesn’t always go exactly to plan! I recommend starting each egg separation over an empty bowl. Pour each successfully separated egg white into the mixing bowl, one at a time. If you accidentally break a yolk, you can use that as one of your whole eggs. So you will have 6 attempts to get 4 whites – pretty good odds, all in all!
This Queque Nube de Chocolate is incredibly versatile – you can add orange or coffee to the chocolate cake, or change up the frosting to suit your tastes. (See Variations at the end of this post.) I piped a beautiful homemade chocolate buttercream frosting on top – recipe to come. A simpler topping choice would be to whip double cream (whipping cream) to soft peaks with a few spoons of icing sugar (powdered sugar) and a teaspoon of vanilla. I admit, if you swish whipped cream over the top of the cake it will look more like a cloud! I have found that whipping cream is difficult to do in the humid weather of rainy season in Costa Rica. Furthermore, the chocolate buttercream adds to the intense chocolate flavour.
My Queque Nube de Chocolate with chocolate buttercream frosting made for a perfect birthday celebration in the middle of a rainy season tropical downpour!
Ingredients
- 225g chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa
- 1 stick butter (113 grams)
- 6 eggs, with 4 whites separated
- 175 grams sugar
- Frosting or whipped cream to top
Queque Nube de Chocolate Instructions
This Chocolate Cloud Cake easily comes together, with the 4 ingredients treated very specifically in three separate bowls. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
- Chocolate-Butter Mixture: Create a double boiler for the chocolate: put a metal or glass bowl on top of a pot of simmering water, break the chocolate into the bowl and leave it to melt. Once melted, take off the heat and allow the butter to melt into the hot chocolate.
- Whipped Egg White Mixture: Carefully separate 4 egg whites into your best whipping bowl, avoiding any trace of yolk. I separate each egg white into an empty cereal bowl, and then add it once I’m sure I separated it properly. Whip until foamy, then slowly add 100 grams sugar and continue whipping to soft peaks.
- Whole Eggs and Yolks Mixture: Add 2 whole eggs and the remaining 75 grams of sugar to the 4 yolks and whisk together. (Any mistakes I make while separate egg whites I easily re-purpose to this bowl!)
- Combine the three Mixtures:
- Add the Chocolate-Butter mixture to the Whole Eggs and Yolks, and whisk together.
- Dollop a big spoon of Whipped Egg Whites into the chocolate mix, and stir to lighten it.
- Lastly, add the lightened chocolate mix to the Whipped Egg Whites and gingerly stir, trying to not deflate the air from the whites.
- Prepare Pan: Butter the sides and line the base of a 9-inch springform pan with a a circle of parchment paper.
- Pour: Pour batter into prepared pan and smooth evenly.
- Bake: Bake in pre-heated 350 degree F oven for 35 minutes. The top should look baked and risen slightly.
- Cool: The cake will fall in the centre as it cools. Cool completely in the pan. If I am taking the cake to an event, I often transport it in the pan, covered with foil or plastic wrap.
- Frost: Pipe or swirl the frosting into the crater in the centre of the cake. If you choose to use whipped cream, it’s best to do it just before time to eat so it doesn’t fall!
Variations
- Whipped Cream – Whip double cream to soft peaks with a teaspoon of vanilla and a 2-3 tablespoons of powdered (icing) sugar. Top with shaved chocolate or sieved cocoa powder.
- Orange – add the zest from an orange and 2 tablespoons orange liquor to the cake. You can use orange liquor in the whipped cream if you aren’t serving to children, of course!
- Coffee – dissolve a tablespoon of espresso powder into a teaspoon of hot water, and mix into whipped cream for the topping. Top with a few whole coffee beans!
Store any leftovers (if you are so lucky) in a closed container in the fridge for up to 3 days. It doesn’t look as pretty but it sure is delicious!
Notes
This recipe has been adapted from Richard Sax’s Chocolate Cloud Cake in his book Classic Home Desserts, and Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Cloud Cake.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do! Check out my Cinnamon Swirl Cake for another sweet treat.
2 responses to “Queque Nube de Chocolate”
[…] If you, like me, love anything chocolatey, Death by Chocolate, next you should try my Queque Nube de Chocolate! […]
[…] that wasn’t saturated with the topping… and she absolutely loved it. Even more than my Queque Nube de Chocolate if you can believe that! As a precaution and at my daughter’s request, I went ahead and made a […]