Chocolate cake (gâteau au chocolat)

Cake

• 200g dark chocolate
• 120g butter
• 4 eggs
• 150g sugar
• 80g flour
• 6g baking powder (1/2 sachet)
• 50g dark chocolate chips
• Icing sugar

Tin

• 10g soft butter
• 10g flour

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 180C before anything else.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir until fully melted, then keep stirring a little off the heat to cool it down. Too hot, it would cook the eggs.
3. Butter the tin with soft butter, then dust evenly with flour. Put the tin on a baking sheet.
4. Crack the eggs one at a time into a glass before adding to the bowl, in case one is bad. Add the sugar and beat with an electric mixer until pale and thick (ribbon stage). Doable by hand, it just takes longer.

Mixing

1. Fold the melted chocolate into the eggs gently but fairly quickly so the mixture does not deflate.
2. Mix the flour and baking powder with the chocolate chips, then fold in the same way.
3. Pour into the tin.

Baking

1. Bake 35 minutes at 180C. Test with a knife blade: if batter sticks, give it 5 more minutes. 40 minutes in the chef's oven.
2. Let it cool a little in the tin before unmoulding. It is very soft and fragile while warm.
3. A well lined tin releases the cake by itself. Otherwise run the tip of a knife around the edge.
4. Dust with icing sugar.