Flourless Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Cream and Candied Peanuts - Gluten Free

It's Friday so I made you a cake.  I'm cool like that.  Have a delicious weekend.


Flourless Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Cream and Candied Peanuts - Gluten Free

For the Cake:
250g dark chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons really strong brewed coffee
2 tablespoons espresso liqueur (optional)
200g unsalted butter, chopped
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups ground almonds
6 large eggs, separated (I used a mixture of ducks eggs and hens eggs because that's what I had.)

For the Peanut Butter Cream:
200ml thickened cream
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted

For the Candied Peanuts:
1/2 cup raw peanuts
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Sea salt flakes

Make the Cake:
Preheat the oven to 170C fan-forced.  Grease and line the base and sides of a round 23cm springfom cak pan.  Set aside.

Put the chocolate, coffee and liqueur into a large heat-proof bowl and set the bowl over a pan of simmering water.  Don't let the pan touch the water.  Once the mixture has melted. remove from the heat and add the butter, sugar and vanilla and stir until the butter has melted.  Stir in the ground almonds.  Lightly beat the egg yolks and stir them into the batter.  Set aside.

Put the egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer filled with the whisk attachment and whip until stiff peaks form.  Stir a big spoonful of whipped egg whites into the chocolate batter and stir it in to loosen the mixture.  Add the rest of the whites and fold them in gently.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 - 55 minutes.  The cake will still have a little wobble in the centre.  The cake will sink damply as it cools.  Set aside to cool completely in the tin.

Make the Peanut Butter Cream:
Pour the cream into the bowl of an electric mixer filled with the whisk attachment and whip until soft peaks form.  Add the peanut butter and icing sugar and beat until it's a spreadable consistency.  Set aside.

Make the Candied Peanuts:.
Put all the ingredients except the salt, into a medium saucepan.  Bring to boil over a high heat, then reduce the heat to low and stir until the water evaporates and the sugar start to crystallize.  Kepp stirring and cooking until the peanuts are golden and crusted with sugar.  Sprinkle with salt immediately.

Assembly:
Take the cooled cake out of the pan and place on a cake stand or plate.  Spread the sunken centre of the cake with Peanut Butter Cream and sprinkle with Candied Peanuts (if you haven't eaten them all while you were waiting for the cake to cool... ahem!)