Via Carota Chocolate Cake

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 just may be the best. It is chocolaty but light, easier to eat than a true chocolate torte, and may be the only chocolate cake you’ll ever need.

Please read the notes at the end at least the first time you make this!

Serves 8 to 10

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 notes)
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 below.

In a clean, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites until foamy, then gradually add 100g of the sugar and the ¼ teaspoon fine salt. Beat until the whites form stiff, glossy peaks—silky but not dry. I use a copper bowl and electric hand mixer for this step. It will probably take a little longer than you expect; be patient.

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. Mix thoroughly.

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. The cake will be very chocolaty, but light, not dense.

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 Seriously Bittersweet by Alice Medrich (Artisan, 2003).

Alice Medrich’s water bath method is my favorite way to melt chocolate with butter. Use a stainless steel bowl, which heats and cools quickly. Glass takes longer to heat and then holds the heat, which can continue cooking the chocolate after you remove it from the bath.

Roughly chop the chocolate and combine it with the butter in the stainless steel bowl.

Put about an inch of water in a wide skillet. I use a 10-inch All-Clad. Bring the water to a simmer, then set the bowl in the skillet. Stir frequently until the chocolate and butter are melted and smooth. Do not let the water go beyond a simmer, and be careful not to let any water get into the chocolate.

Remove the bowl from the heat and proceed with the recipe.

This cake also seems to belong to the same delicious family as Richard Sax’s Chocolate Cloud Cake, from Classic Home Desserts (Houghton Mifflin, 1994).