Chocolate Cream (Dream) Cake

Ingredients

1/4 c. Cognac or rum
1/4 c. espresso
16 oz. bittersweet chocolate broken into pieces
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
6 eggs
1/2 c. sugar or more to taste
1 c. heavy cream chilled
gold leaf optional
whipped heavy cream slightly sweetened for serving
Fresh raspberries optional

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line with parchment paper a 10-inch cake pan, with quite high sides.
Boil a full kettle of water and set aside. Have a roasting pan at the ready that will accommodate the cake pan comfortably.
Put the Cognac or rum, espresso, chocolate and vanilla into a saucepan and melt over a bain-marie.
Break the eggs into a large glass or metal bowl with the sugar. Set the bowl over a pot of warm water, and beat until the mixture has tripled in volume and has the consistency of whipped cream. This will take about 10 minutes.
In a separate bowl, whip the cream into peaks.
Partially fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Add the whipped heavy cream and continue folding the mixtures until evenly combined. Pour into the cake pan. Set the cake pan into the roasting pan, and slide it into the oven. Now, pour the hot water from the kettle into the roasting pan halfway up the sides of the cake pan.
Bake until set, about 1 hour. Turn off the oven, open the door and let the cake sit for 15 minutes to sink evenly back into the pan. Remove the cake from the oven and let it sit 30 minutes in the water bath. Remove from the bath and flip the cake onto a platter. Press gold leaf, if using, on the top to decorate. Serve with sweetened whipped cream on the side.

Recipe Notes

Notes: On the show, Laura Calder halved the ingredients and baked the cake in a smaller pan. This written recipe makes a larger cake (9" pan). She also said to add the vanilla, rum and espresso to the chocolate while melting. But, while reading comments about the cake people talked about the chocolate seizing up. Chocolate will seize if liquid is added; I don't know if the amounts given keeps if from doing so; I just know if you add like a tablespoon of any liquid to melting chocolate it will start to clump up. I added the rum, espresso and vanilla to the beaten egg mixture. One other thing is she says to beat the eggs until the consistency of whipped cream. Honestly, I don't think that is possible. I don't have a hand mixer so I was beating my eggs with a large whisk. They might have gotten close to UN-WHIPPED cream but not WHIPPED. Let me know if you try this and use a hand mixer if you ever get the whipped consistency. One other thing is I would like for my cake to be a little thicker so next time I try this I will make in a 8" pan.