Happy Birthday Jesus Cake

Every year for Christmas, I've been making a cake with my nieces and nephew to celebrate Jesus' birthday, the true reason for the season. In previous years, it's been a boxed cake which the kids would help me make, adding the eggs, water, and oil to the packaged mix, frosting with the overly sweetened store bought stuff, and then decorating with sprinkles, of course.

This year, my sister, who was cooking the Christmas meal, suggested we bake the cake from scratch. Following her recommendation and online recipe search, we enjoyed a flourless chocolate cake by Tyler Florence of the Foodnetwork. She and the girls baked while I took pictures.

Here's the recipe for the Chocolate Cracked Earth, our 2009 Happy Birthday Jesus Cake:

1. Separate 9 large eggs and whisk the egg yolks with 3/4 cups and 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar until light yellow in color.

2. Put 1 pound bittersweet chocolate and 1 stick unsalted butter into the top of a double boiler, and heat over (but not touching) about 1 inch of simmering water until melted.

3. When chocolate is melted, whisk a little of the mixture into the egg yolk mixture to temper the eggs - this will keep the eggs from scrabling from the heat of the chocolate - then whisk in the rest of the chocolate mixture.

4. Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form, and fold into the chocolate mixture.

5. Pour into a buttered 9-inch spring form pan, and bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.

6. Cake is done when the top starts to crack. Inserted toothpick should come out with moist crumbs clinging to it. Let stand 10 minutes then remove sides of the pan.

7. After the cake is cooled, dust with confectioners' sugar and decorate. (Optional: Serve topped with 2 cups heavy cream whipped until light and fluffy.)

For reasons we are unsure of, the cake "fell". We think it needed a bit more baking time. Thus, from the side, our cake looked like 2 big chocolate cookies with a chocolate filling. Though it looked a little flat, it was definitely not flat in taste. Having used 60% cacao bittersweet chips, our cake had a nice deep dark bittersweet bite, with rich subtleties in the chocolate flavoring. With a deep dark brown color, it had a wonderful chocolatey aroma, and was moist, slightly crumbly.

There was a unique texture to the cake, however. With 9 eggs in the recipe (definitely NOT vegan), it had a souffle quality which was different from most flourless cakes I've had. The cake was not dense, it was not light. It was simply different - hard to describe - a uniquely dense souffle; a smoother lighter brownie. Words don't quite capture it.

Overall, it would be a cake to try again, especially for dark chocolate lovers. I enjoyed it. It was fairly easy to make, used few ingredients, and was gluten-free. With a definite bittersweet bite, the whipped cream is a must however for those who prefer a sweeter chocolate profile. This was not your typical overly sweetened, out of the box chocolate cake.

Though I think the kids missed licking the pre-made frosting from the spoons this year, I enjoyed this year's cake better than the box. What's most important however is that our Christmas tradition continues as we work together to bake a cake for Jesus, spend time together as family, and celebrate the gift of love God gave us in Christ. Happy Birthday Jesus! You are the reason for the season.