Flourless Chocolate Cake with Green Tea Icing

This cake perfectly captures the week that I have had. In a fit of madness I decided to go on a crazy health kick, starting this week. No more cake for breakfast :( It's been a very long week. My stomach started making angry lioness-type noises that everyone in the office could hear and I rediscovered my addiction to Japanese green tea. I've been drinking bucketloads of it. And the whole week all I could think about was chocolate cake. Rich, dark, gooey, delicious chocolate cakey-goodness.

Rather than cheating on my health kick I distracted myself by making plans to bake a fantastic, fudgey chocolate cake on the weekend, which I would then give away to other people and weep into my 100th mug of sencha. I suddenly felt the urge to try out a flourless chocolate cake recipe, something I've never done on this blog before. It didn't take long to decide on trying Martha's version because it doesn't use almond meal. So my cake not only had the advantage of being gluten-free but it's also nut-free! And then my green tea addiction took over and I decided to slather the whole cake in some green tea cream cheese icing, knowing how well the two worked together for my Green Tea Cheesecake Bites.

This cake is a little on the ugly side but the amazingness of the flavour totally outweighs the looks. I'm just salivating thinking about the tiny piece I had earlier! A thin, slightly crisp exterior with a rich, fluffy middle which is like a chocolate mousse crossed with a brownie (*drool*) and a thin layer of matcha-flavoured cream cheese icing. It's the perfect mixture of sweetness and bitterness. I was a little unsure about when to take the cake out of the oven since it still had a bit of jiggle after the recommended baking time, so I turned the oven off and left it in for a few extra minutes before taking it out. I was expecting the cake to totally collapse in the middle the way I've seen a lot of flourless cakes do, but this one kept most of its height. That's when I knew this cake was going to be gorgeous.

Unfortunately I don't think I greased the side of the tin well enough so some of the edge stuck to the sides of the pan, and it was reeeeally hard to lift the cake out of the base of the tin (I wouldn't bother if I wasn't photographing it). I was so impatient waiting for this cake to cool that it was still warm when I was slapping on the icing and when I cut a slice it was all delightfully oozy in the middle. Messy but divine. You might notice that it's quite a thin layer of icing on top, I usually love my icing heaped on, but this cake didn't really need too much extra icing as it's so moist. I even accidently bought light cream cheese but the icing still tasted great because it was packed full of matcha powder.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Green Tea (Matcha) Cream Cheese Icing
(adapted from Martha's Flourless Chocolate Cake, serves 8-10)
85g (6 tbsp) unsalted butter, plus more for greasing pan
225 (8 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used 50% cocoa chocolate)
6 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup granulated or caster sugar

For the icing (feel free to double these amounts to get a nice thick layer of icing):
125g cream cheese (can use light cream cheese)
1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp matcha (green tea) powder

Preheat the oven to 135°C (275°F) degrees with the rack in the center. Butter the bottom and sides of a 20-22cm springform pan (I also lined the bottom with baking paper, so I could transfer the cake to a different base after baking).

Place butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl and microwave in 30-second increments, stirring each time, until completely melted. Let cool slightly. Whisk in egg yolks. In a large mixing bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment. Gradually add sugar, and continue beating until glossy stiff peaks form. Whisk 1/4 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture; then gently fold in remaining egg whites. Make sure there are no visible clumps of eggwhite remaining in the mixture. Pour batter into the prepared pan, and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and is set in the center, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack; remove sides of pan.

Prepare the cream cheese icing; remove cream cheese from fridge 30 mins before starting. Beat cream cheese and sifted icing sugar together with an electric mixer until smooth. Add matcha powder and beat until combined. You can adjust the amount of matcha to your own taste. Gently spread over the top of cooled cake using a spatula and serve at room temperature. Can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for several days, but it will get eaten up a lot faster than that!

P.S. My dear friend Lisa from spicy icecream is taking part in the Malaysia Kitchen Blogger Summit, where she is reviewing Malaysian restaurants in Sydney during the month of August for a chance to win a trip to Malaysia. Please do me a big, big favour and click the 'Like' button at the end of her reviews so far: here and here. I've always considered Lisa an honorary Malaysian because she completely shares my love for Malaysian food and it would be so fantastic if she gets to go there!