Chocolate Truffle Cake

A couple Sundays ago, my husband and I went to explore the American History museum. I had wanted to go because there were a lot of exhibits that had switched over since the last time I was there, and I wanted to see the new exhibit on the Presidency. (And very interesting it is too!) But toward the end, we went downstairs to the basement where Julia Child's kitchen is, and we looked around and watched some of her shows that they have running all the time. It was inspiring for both of us to cook more and to try more exotic recipes. So, through the next few days, I looked through a bunch of my recipe books and when I came to this one, I discovered that I really and truly wanted to cook every single recipe! Well then, I thought, I'll just start at the beginning! And so I did. This Chocolate Truffle Cake was the first recipe.
It called to make it all in one cake, but I didn't have a cake pan big enough, so I made two smaller ones and put them together. It was easy and amounted to the same thing. It says at the top that it serves 12, but I cut mine into twelve pieces and decided that it could easily be 20. The cake is so rich, you can be quite happy with a very small piece.

15 oz 70% chocolate
2 sticks unsalted butter
6 large eggs seperated
scant 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
6 tbs dark rum
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup ground almonds
1 quantity glossy chocolate cream
few raspberries to decorate
light cream to serve (optional)

1) Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the chocolate. Allow to mt, then remove the bowl from over the water and set aside to cool for 15 min.

2) Meanwhile, in a clean bowl,  whisk the  egg yolks and sugar together until thick, pale and creamy. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff but not dry.

3) Stir the melted chocolate mixture into the whisked egg yolks and sugar. Add the rum and vanilla extract. Sift in the flour and add the ground almonds and whisked egg whites. Carefully fold the ingredients together until well mixed, taking care not to beat too much air out of the mixture. I put mine in two 9 in cakepans, and baked them together for about 15 minutes. (She calls for one cakepan, and baking it for about 50 min.) Allow to cool completely before spreading with the icing. (the glossy cream is just melted chocolate and whipped cream...delicious, but another chocolate icing would be lovely too.) 

 You can see that my icing is not as stiff as hers. I'm not sure why. I followed the glossy cream recipe, and it said that it should get hard, but mine never got more than "pretty stiff." So the stars were to be like the hearts in the picture, but they were never hard enough to just peel off, so we just ate them.

All in all, we give it an 8 out of 10! Very decadent and full of chocolate yumminess. (By the way, don't try to eat this when you're full. Have a small dinner, then wait a while and have it... or better yet, have it before dinner!)