Queen of Sheba Chocolate Cake (French Reine de Saba)

The light texture of this French chocolate cake is what sets it apart from all others. The secret to making this light and fluffy is gently folding in the beaten egg whites. It delivers a burst of rich, creamy, chocolate to your tastebuds via a very light, airy, meringue-like cake. To ice the cake you simply pour the chocolate icing over it and it hardens in a couple of minutes. One of the most important parts of making this cake is to slightly under-bake it. That’s right, the middle of the cake should be a little gooey and the edges should be cooked through. You test this with a toothpick. The toothpick should come out clean around the edges and should have a little bit of cake on it when you sample the middle. This doesn’t mean that part of the cake will be gooey and part of the cake will be drier. I discovered that as the cake cools, it evens out, making the texture for all of the cake moist, light, and just a little bit fudgy.

3 large egg whites
1 pinch sea salt
1 Tbsp. sugar

Cake:
1 stick unsalted butter
⅔ cup sugar
3 egg yolks
⅔ cups semisweet chocolate morsels
2 Tbsp. rum or brewed coffee
⅓ cup almond meal (you can make this by chopping up almonds fine in a food processor)
¼ tsp. pure almond extract
¾ cup cake flour

Decoration:
almonds, blanched and skinned

Chocolate Glaze:
⅔ cup semisweet chocolate morsels
2 Tbsp. rum or brewed coffee
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C/160°C fan, Gas Mark 4) and brush a 9" cake pan with softened butter.

To Make the Meringue:
Add egg whites to a mixing bowl and mix at slow speed until foamy. Add a pinch of salt and mix on high.

Sprinkle a Tbsp. of sugar and mix on high until stiff peaks form. The egg whites should stick to a spatula when tipped over.

Be careful not to overmix. The egg whites should be stiff but not dry.

To Make the Cake:
Beat unsalted butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks and beat until batter is light yellow.

Melt the chocolate with the rum (or coffee) either in a microwave (just 20-30 seconds at time, mixing in between) or by putting one pan inside another pan that is filled with hot water (don’t melt butter over an open flame). Stir just until the morsels are melted and the chocolate is liquid and velvety.

Add the melted chocolate to the batter and blend it in. Add the almond meal and almond extract and blend it in. Add the flour and blend it in.

Fold in the egg whites. First put in ¼ of egg whites and stir them in. Then dump the rest of the egg whites on top and gently fold them in.

Pour the batter into your prepared cake pan and gently spread it to the edges. Shake and turn the pan a little so the batter runs evenly to the edges.

Bake the cake on the middle rack for about 20-25 minutes. (Take it out and test it with a toothpick. When testing the toothpick should come out dry along the edges but a little wet or crumbly in the center).

Let the cake rest for 10 minutes before turning it over onto a wire rack.

Let the cake rest for about two hours before icing it.

Prepare the chocolate glaze icing the same way you melted the chocolate previously but add in the butter. The icing can be warm but shouldn’t be too hot. Pour it over the cake. Decorate the cake with almonds as you see fit.