Flourless Chocolate Cake

     Now that I'm back at school and living in a dorm full of people with various dietary restrictions, cooking our shared meals has become a little more challenging. While some chefs would address this by greatly simplifying their menus, I choose to meet this challenge head on, and figure out how I can still make all the foods I love, and just adapt them slightly. For example, upon hearing that I can no longer cook with flour, it would be easy to give up on dessert, or at least to choose something that wouldn't normally require it. But no. This week, I refused to accept that. I wanted a chocolate cake, and I was prepared to do whatever it took to create a suitable one. The result, while obviously different from a traditional cake, was actually quite good, and tasted more like a rich, gooey brownie. Now I know that there entire food blogs devoted to gluten-free cooking and that they have come up with many different ways to bake their cakes, but this particular recipe will be my go-to gluten-free dessert because it's quick, easy, and most importantly, pretty cheap. The only minor problem I ran into with this recipe was in trying to prevent the cake from sticking to the pan. Just as I began cooking, I realized that you cannot flour a cake pan and still call the result gluten-free. So I just buttered it and hoped for the best, which unfortunately could have been a lot better. So I'm sure that somebody somewhere has found a solution to this problem, but my best tips are any and/or all of the following: Use a cake pan with great nonstick finish, line it with parchment paper and then grease it, or use almond flour or some other flour substitute to coat it. Also, this recipe makes a single cake, but feel free to double it, add some chocolate frosting, and create a double-decker if you want to!

INGREDIENTS: (Makes 1 round 8-inch cake)
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 stick of butter, cubed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
powdered sugar to sprinkle on top
optional fruit for garnishing (I used a few blueberries.)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 and prepare your pan.
2. Over a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips with the butter and stir well.
3. Once the chocolate chips and butter are completely melted together, beat in the eggs and then stir in the sugar, baking powder, and cocoa powder.

4. Add the batter to the pan and bake at 375 for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

5. Let the cake cool for about 20 minutes, then dust it with powdered sugar and garnish it with fruit.

Enjoy! And come back later this week for an old family favorite!