Adapted from Via Carota: A Celebration of Seasonal Cooking from the Beloved Greenwich Village Restaurant by Jody Williams and Rita Sodi with Anna Kovel (Knopf, 2022)
This won’t be the most beautiful chocolate cake you’ve ever made—but it will be the best. In fact, it’s The Only Chocolate Cake you’ll ever need, and that’s what I call it.
Please read the notes at the end at least the first time you make this!
Makes one 9-inch cake in a springform pan.
170g unsalted butter (plus a little more for the pan)
Cocoa powder to dust the cake pan
200g bittersweet chocolate, broken into smallish pieces (see note)
6 large eggs, separated (see notes)
200g sugar (I like to use golden caster sugar if I have it—ordered from Kalustyan’s)
¼ teaspoon fine salt
Preheat a regular oven (not convection) to 350°F.
Butter a 9-inch springform pan and dust it with cocoa powder the same way you would normally flour a cake pan. Tap out the excess.
Melt the butter and chocolate together. I use the Alice Medrich Water Bath Method from The Kitchn (see below).
In a clean, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy, then gradually add 100g of the sugar. Beat until the whites form stiff, glossy peaks—silky but not dry. I use a copper bowl and electric hand mixer for this step.
In another bowl (large enough to hold everything later), whisk the egg yolks with the remaining 100g of sugar until they are thick and light. I use an electric hand mixer. Even if your yolks start out very golden, they will lighten.
Slowly stir the cooled but still liquid chocolate/butter mixture into the yolks. It must be cool enough and stirred constantly so you don’t "cook" the yolks.
Gently fold the beaten egg whites into the chocolate–egg yolk mixture. Leave some white streaks—this won’t feel natural, but it’s important for texture.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. In my oven, 40 is enough. The cake will puff up dramatically, then sink as it cools. It may even resemble the Sorting Hat from Harry Potter. That’s fine.
Cool completely before removing the sides of the pan.
Serve plain or with thick whipped cream.
NOTES
– It’s easiest to separate eggs when they’re cold, so I often do that straight from the fridge. Then let them come to room temperature before you begin making the cake.
– When separating and beating eggs: a tiny bit of white in your yolks is fine. But even a speck of yolk will prevent the whites from whipping properly. So it’s best to beat your egg whites first while your tools are clean and dry, then move on to the yolks.
– You’ll be folding the whites into the yolks, so beat your yolks in a bowl big enough to eventually hold everything.
Alice Medrich Water Bath Method for Melting Chocolate
Adapted from Alice Medrich via The Kitchn
Put about an inch of water in a wide skillet (I use a 10-inch All-Clad). Place a heatproof bowl—stainless steel works well—with the chopped chocolate and butter into the skillet. Bring the water to a simmer, then turn off the heat. Let the chocolate and butter melt undisturbed. When it’s mostly melted, stir gently until smooth.
Medrich writes:
With this method you can see everything—you can see when the water is starting to simmer (it will rattle the bowl, too!) and you can turn off the flame. You can’t see what’s happening inside a double boiler. Of course, you always have to be careful, no matter what your method, but this is the easiest way I know how to keep track of everything.