Friendship and Flourless Chocolate Cake...

I had an "a-ha" moment.  It doesn't happen often...

A few days ago I learned that a friend from my cooking group - the Culinary Divas, didn't survive her heart surgery.  She left behind a husband, and two young daughters - it was very tragic and makes me feel so sad for her family.  The dinner table won't be the same as our group goes on it's culinary adventures together - her happy laughter will be missed by all of us.

This tragedy has taught me something about friendship and the strength of a community - particularly a community of women.  Within minutes of the email going out to all the Culinary Divas, offers flowed in volunteering to cook meals or bake for the family.  Within hours we had more than three weeks of dinners covered.  Some of these volunteers didn't know our fallen Diva personally, but they still wanted to help the family though this difficult time.  That to me is the power of community.

This is when my "a-ha" moment came to me. I don't believe a sense of community like this just happens on it's own.   It takes encouragement, inspiration and nurturing to develop it's strength.  I started the North Shore Divas and Culinary Divas years ago with the idea that women like myself needed a place for developing these strengths in ourselves.  Call it part of our personal development if you will.   What I never fully realized until now is that not only have we been making ourselves stronger, but we have developed together into this amazing community of women who will open up and share our strengths where they are needed. It's a beautiful thing.  All this has renewed my energy to keep the Divas going strong - I can see it does make a difference.

Today, in memory of Jill W. I am sharing an amazing Flourless Chocolate Cake recipe from my personal favorites collection.  This recipe is truly a labour of love...follow each step, don't try and skip any and you will have a cake worth sharing.  Make it and invite a few friends over for dessert, conversation and some laughs...you'll feel great afterwards!

The recipe:  http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Flourless-Chocolate-Cake-I/Detail.aspx

Notes:  I have made a few modifications to this recipe:

1.  Use semi-sweet chocolate chips instead and 1/2 cup sugar.  Buy the good quality chips - it really does make a difference.
2.  I use salted butter and then don't add any salt to the recipe
3.  I use a spring form pan instead of a regular round cake pan.  This is very important to a much easier to remove cake!  I cut a piece of parchment paper and line the bottom of my pan, spraying very lightly with spray-oil so it is easy to peel off the cake before plating it.  As part of my pan preparation I cover the outside of it with aluminum foil wrap...it takes two pieces in opposite directions.  You want to make it waterproof up to an inch and a half or so up the sides of the pan for when it goes in the water bath.  (I will add a photo here to show it)
4.  The water bath is very important, don't skip this step.
5.  I refrigerate the cake for a few hours before removing from the spring form pan.
6.  Serve with a dollop of vanilla whip cream and some fresh sliced berries.

Verdict:  This is a serious chocolate cake...it is like eating ganache or chocolate pate.  You only need to serve a small slice to each person - a little goes a long way.  This cake has never disappointed me and it has become somewhat of a legend at my dinner table.  My secret is out...enjoy!

Rest in Peace Jill.
Cheers,
Kris