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Sharing a simple Flourless Chocolate Espresso Cake for your mid-week chocolate fix. Don’t let the flourless detail scare you away, this chocolate cake is insanely delicious. Made using dark chocolate and olive oil for richness, sweetened simply with only a touch of sugar, made airy with whipped egg whites, and studded with chocolate chunks. Top with honey whipped ricotta for a sweet creamy balance to the rich, fudgy, molten-like cake. Trust me, this is SO GOOD, and extra chocolatey. Bonus? This cake is even gluten-free!
The true gift of Valentine’s Day? Chocolate…all the chocolate. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love some pretty flowers, jewelry, or a restock of my favorite skincare products. But to me, nothing beats a warm chocolate cake. I mean, right? Baking up something sweet for someone you love is a true way to really show them how much you care.
Enter this cake. It’s great for Valentine’s Day (do you celebrate?), but equally great for any other day you’re craving a little chocolate. This is that go-to, super easy, insanely rich, but not too sweet, chocolate cake. It melts in your mouth and is truly “roll your eyes'” back delicious. And the crazy thing? This cake is completely flourless making it naturally gluten-free.
Promise it’s not too good to be true.
This cake took me some time to get right, but the extra effort was worth it. The keys to success? Good chocolate, good extra virgin olive oil, a decent amount of eggs, and apparently no flour.
For the chocolate, I usually use an organic chocolate bar from Whole Foods that’s 85% dark chocolate. If you want a sweeter cake, try using a 70% dark chocolate bar.
As for the olive oil, I love using Brightland olive oil, especially when baking. It adds the perfect, subtle fruit flavor and creates a cake that is extra moist. If that’s not easily available, any extra virgin olive oil will work well. Alternately, you can use melted butter in place of the oil, but we love this cake best when baked with olive oil. Shocking, I know, but it works.
You need only a few simple, pantry staple ingredients. High-quality chocolate, extra virgin olive oil, eggs, sugar, espresso powder, vanilla, and cocoa powder. Just seven ingredients.
You’ll want to melt together the chocolate and olive oil. I normally just do this in the microwave, but you can easily melt over low heat on the stove. I like to melt the chocolate and oil together in a large mixing bowl that will fit the remaining ingredients. The fewer dishes the better.
Once melted, simply whisk in the egg yolks, sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder, a pinch of salt, and the vanilla.
Next, take those eggs whites and whip them until stiff peaks form. This step is key to a lighter cake with a slightly crinkly top. It takes no effort at all and creates a truly luscious flourless cake. Gently fold the whipped egg whites into the chocolate mixture.
The real secret of this cake is the final ingredient, a handful of semi-sweet or milk chocolate chunks. Stir these into the cake batter, then bake, and in less then thirty minutes your kitchen will have hints of espresso and rich chocolate in the air.
The smell alone is better than any bakery…but the cake itself? Every bite is truly to die for.
This cake is rich. It’s not light and fluffy like a layer cake, but much more thick and fudgy instead. To balance the richness out, I knew I needed some kind of creamy topping. You can, of course, simply top with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream, but why not try something a little more special?
Whipped ricotta…with honey and vanilla too. It’s creamy, lightly sweetened, and heavy on the vanilla…and tastes heavenly. The perfect compliment to this fudgy chocolate cake.
This cake can be served slightly warm or at room temperature. If you’d like to prepare the cake a few days ahead of time, it stores really well. Just be sure to keep it covered and in a cool place. There’s also no need to refrigerate this cake. Making it the perfect make-ahead dessert for everything from Valentine’s Day, to Easter, to Mother’s Day, and any other occasion in between.
Like maybe some mid-week Tuesday night baking? Hey, it’s mid-February, we have plenty of snow falling here in Colorado, and that’s the perfect excuse to bake up this delicious cake.
Looking for other Valentine’s Day inspired desserts? Try these sweet lemon rose shortbread cookies. They’re an oldie, but one of my favorite cookies.
If you make this Flourless Chocolate Espresso Cake be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Sooo good and easy! Will be saving this recipe for all the times I need to impress guests or want to make my chocolate loving family extra happy 🙂
Amazing! Thank you so much Carly! xTieghan
Definitely a keeper! I made it Friday, with butter, because I was running low on olive oil. I think the butter made it stiffer and harder to incorporate the beaten whites without deflating them. It truly didn’t matter; the cake was still perfect. Simple and fun for a Valentine treat. Next time, I’ll try it with olive oil. It’s hard to go wrong with this recipe.
I am so glad this still turned out so well for you Barbara! Thank you for trying it!! xTieghan
I made this for Valentine’s Day. I made it exactly as the recipe reads except for the espresso powder which I didn’t have. It was absolutely delicious. My entire family loved it. Thank you for another wonderful recipe that will become a regular in our home.
Hi Nora! I am really glad you and your family loved this recipe! Thank you so much for trying it! xTieghan
This chocolate cake is ultra delicious — the texture is dense and silky and the flavor is out of this world. I did not separate the eggs. The end result is swoon worthy and oh so elegant. Thank you Tiegan for another stellar recipe. You rock!
Hi Susan! Thank you for trying this cake!! I am so glad it turned out so well for you! YES! xTieghan
I made this and it was amazing! It’s almost more of a brownie, but better because there is a lightness to it. I will definitely add this to the rotation and love that it’s gluten free. It was super easy, which makes it even better. And no butter or flour is amazing- almost like health food 😉 thank you!
Hi Alicia! I am so glad this recipe turned out so well for you! Thank you for trying it! xTieghan
Delish! I made this last night with butter. The ricotta on top was so light and such a perfect pairing to cut through the richness of the cake. Loved it!
Amazing! Thank you for trying this Cassy! xTieghan
The flavour was really good but I didn’t get a good rise on the cake (it was only about 1” tall) and it felt a bit greasy. I whipped my egg whites until they had stiff peaks but maybe just folded them in too aggressively and lost all the air? I was having trouble getting the egg whites to combine well with the chocolate mixture so had to stir quite a bit.
Hey Ashley, this cake is not meant to rise and is meant to be more dense and fudgy. But the cake should not be greasy. Next time, try folding the whites in with a little less force. Air on the side of not mixing enough versus over mixing. I think this will help!
Please let me know if you have any other questions. Sorry you had some trouble! xTieghan
Made this cake as a dessert for our Valentine’s Day dinner. It turned out delicious! When folding in the egg whites I incorporated to what I thought was “just combined” (could still see some egg white swirls) vs. more completely (completely combined like I later saw in an IG video) so my final cake didn’t look exactly as pictured BUT it still tasted great!! We also really liked the whipped ricotta! We’ll be making his again for sure!
Hi Allyson! I am glad this still tasted amazing for you! Thank you! xTieghan
I made this last night for Valentines Day and it was delicious! My batter got very thick after adding the dry ingredients. I’m guessing the directions said to let the chocolate/olive oil cool for 5 minutes so the eggs wouldn’t cook but I would probably just leave it for a minute or two when I make it again. It still turned out yummy but it was a little more difficult to get in the pan nicely!
Thank you so much Kelley! I am so glad this cake turned out wonderfully for you! I hope you had an amazing Valentine’s Day! xTieghan
I made this today and it turned out great! I left out the espresso powder and I actually didn’t realize you were supposed to add chunks of chocolate too but it was super yummy and didn’t seem to be lacking anything! Topped it with Trader Joe’s coconut whip cream since we are daily free. Thanks for the recipe and Happy Valentine’s. ❤️
Happy Valentine’s Day to you! I am so glad you enjoyed this Tammy! Thank you! xTieghan
Made this just now for Valentine’s Day and it was INSANELY GOOD. The whipped sweet ricotta… omgggggggg thanks for another delicious and uncomplicated dessert recipe!
Thank you so much Nicole! So glad this turned out so well for you! xTieghan
The whipped ricotta can be stored at room temperature?
Hi Blair! The ricotta should be stored in the fridge. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you!! xTieghan
love you and all your recipes!! might want to make an edit to the first step of melting the chocolate and olive oil at the beginning to specify just melt the dark chocolate – i melted It all at the beginning and didn’t realize that was wrong until getting to the later step of “mixing in the chocolate chunks” out of dark chocolate now to start over so crossing my fingers it still turns out!
Hi! I hope this still turns out amazing for you! I am sure it will! The recipe is updated! xTieghan
I’m also curious about eliminating the espresso – I don’t tolerate caffeine. (Super hard for a busy working mom). Is there a good substitute or can I just proceed without it?
HI Leslie, yes you can omit the espresso. The cake will still be great! Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you!! xTieghan
Tieghan, do you think this would work as a birthday cake? One cake + frosting, or cake + frosting + cake + frosting (a layered cake)? I have a wonderful go-to recipe for birthday cakes (the yummiest yoghurt cake ever!), but I really want to find THE chocolate cake for that purpose too. And I wonder if this could be it…
Anyway, I will try this recipe soon. No birthday – only sweet tooth. 😀
Thank you!
Sofia
Hey Sofia! I wouldn’t recommend this as a layered birthday cake. It’s a bit too dense for that. Linking my favorite birthday cake below. Please let me know if you have any other questions. I hope you love this recipe! Thank you!! xTieghan
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/simple-chocolate-birthday-cake-whipped-chocolate-buttercream-video/