Flourless Chocolate cake with honey and ground almonds

Ingredients

• 4 Tablespoons cocoa powder
• ½ cup boiling water
• 200 g dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 120 g unsalted butter, cut in cubes (or coconut oil)
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, separated
• ½ cup honey
• ½ cup ground almonds (sometimes called almond meal or flour)
• Ganache topping:
• 6 Tbsp heavy cream (coconut milk)
• 100 g dark chocolate, chopped
• 2 Tbsp butter (or coconut oil)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line the bottom of a 22 cm (8-inch) spring-form pan (or cakepan) with baking parchment.
2. Put cocoa in a heat proof bowl, add the boiling water and stir till smooth. Add chocolate and butter, to the cocoa mixture and place over a pot of gently simmering water until, whisk until butter and chocolate have melted and mixture smooth. Stir in the vanilla and set aside to cool.
3. One by one, whisk egg yolks into the cooled chocolate mixture, then fold in honey and ground almonds.
4. Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they reach soft peaks. Fold 1/3 of the whites into the chocolate batter to loosen it up, then gently fold in the rest.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 30 minutes. Let cool before removing from the pan.
6. For the ganache, heat the chocolate and cream together in a small pot. Remove from heat, add the butter and whisk until smooth. Pour over the cooled cake and garnish with crushed pink peppercorns, seasonal berries or whatever captures your imagination. Once cooled, the ganache will set and thicken.