Flourless Chocolate-Orange Cake
This fudgy, party-ready chocolate cake is dreamily simple to make. With nine probably-in-your-pantry ingredients and no special equipment, you can get it into the oven in about 10 minutes. It’s the recipe I pull out when I’m having people over at the last minute or heading to a gathering and don’t have time to make something elaborate. Despite the easy technique, this cake over-delivers on flavor and presentation. The flourless formula makes it naturally gluten-free, while the inclusion of orange zest massaged into the sugar (and a bit of juice in the batter as well) puts a twist on the classic chocolate cake that food director Chris Morocco, a noted chocolate-orange hater, called “beguiling.” With a lofty cloud of whipped cream on top, dotted with shaved chocolate and thinly sliced orange zest, it’s a treat everyone can get behind. For the cleanest slices, pull your knife back up through your cut rather than dragging it out the back of each slice, which can crack the outer edges of the cake, and wipe down the knife between cuts.
This recipe is from our Dinner With Friends series. Get the full menu here: How to Throw a Dinner Party With Just $60
Recipe information
Total Time
40 minutes (plus cooling)
Yield
10 servings
Ingredients
Special Equipment
Preparation
Step 1
Place a rack in middle of oven and preheat to 350°. Butter bottom and sides of pan with unsalted butter. Remove a wide strip of orange zest from 1 large orange with a peeler and set aside. Finely grate remaining zest from orange into a large bowl; add 1 cup (200 g) sugar. Using your fingers, massage zest into sugar until mixture is homogenous and fragrant, about 1 minute. Set orange sugar aside.
Step 2
Cut orange in half and squeeze 2 Tbsp. juice into a medium saucepan. Add 8 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped, and 10 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly with a heatproof rubber spatula and scraping down sides as needed, until melted and combined, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in ½ cup plus 1 Tbsp. (45 g) unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tsp. baking powder, and ¾ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt. Let chocolate mixture cool slightly.
Step 3
Add 3 large eggs to reserved orange sugar and whisk to combine (you can use the same whisk without cleaning as it’s all going to the same place). Scrape in chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake cake until risen and top is set, 28–30 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack and let cake cool in pan. Remove sides of pan.
Step 4
Just before serving, whisk 1 cup heavy cream in a medium bowl to form soft peaks; mound on top of cake, creating decorative swooshes with spoon. Using a sharp knife, very thinly slice reserved orange zest strip. Scatter orange zest and shaved bittersweet or semisweet chocolate over cake.
Do Ahead: Cake can be baked 1 day ahead. Tightly wrap cooled cake and chill. Bring to room temperature before topping with whipped cream, orange zest, and shaved chocolate.
