Rich, Dense Chocolate Cake

- with Mascarpone Mousse -

I can't recall when it was that I first began making my grandma's brownie recipe as a cake, but I've been doing it for a while now. Brownies as brownies are good, but spread thinly in a tart pan, brownies become an divine, decadent European-style cake. It resembles closely my flourless chocolate almond cake which is a very popular cake in France and Italy, but is far easier to make, because you don't have to separate your eggs and whip your egg whites. It is also a little denser, because although the almond cake is very rich as well, it has a texture which is both rich and slightly fluffy as well. Essentially this is a great cake to make if you want to emulate the flourless almond chocolate cake, but have no ground almonds and only about an hour to make it.

I usually serve this cake with whipped cream, or sometimes topped with fudge icing. However, I was really craving mascarpone mousse this week, so I thought I'd serve it with that in the place of cream. It turned out to be an excellent pairing; the mascarpone mousse is not too chocolatey, I really use a lot of mascarpone and just spice it up a bit with a little cocoa powder and brandy, so it compliments the intense chocolate flavour of the cake very well. I am not re-posting my mascarpone mousse recipe because I posted it last Christmas, so I simply put a link below to my previous post. The mousse is great on its own, too, so if you want something similar to chocolate mousse, but less chocolatey, try just making the mousse on its own, and present it in a fancy dish. If you wish to serve only mousse for a dessert, a double recipe will feed 4-8 people as a main dessert, so I would do at least a double recipe if you wish to serve it on its own. 

For the Cake  (For a small tart or pie pan. If you are using a springform cake pan, I recommend doubling both the cake/brownie and mousse recipes.)

Ingredients:

2 one oz. squares unsweetened chocolate (1/4 cup)(about 55 - 60 grams)
½ cup butter (110 grams)
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup whole wheat flour (110 grams)
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup walnuts chopped (225 grams)

Directions:

• Melt chocolate with butter over very low heat. Beat the eggs until creamy, adding the sugar gradually. Continue beating until fluffy. Stir in the butter and chocolate mixture, and the vanilla. Sift the flour and salt together, then stir into the batter until just until blended (do not over-beat).  Fold in the walnuts. Pour into a spring-form pan or tart pan. 
• Bake at 350-degrees F for 20-30 min. Do not over bake, for this will make brownies dry. Make sure the batter sticks to the toothpick, but is not runny. 
• Makes one 8 “x 8” x 2” pan; double the recipe for a 9 by 13 inch pan.

For the Mascarpone Mousse
Refer to my previously posted recipe here.

To Serve
Cut pieces of the cake, and spoon some mascarpone cream over each piece.

Enjoy!