Nigella's Chocolate and Espresso Cake

Just to let you know, this post was written before I started the paleo diet to help ease my psoriasis. Nowadays I eat a more allergy-friendly diet, but leave these older, non-paleo posts up in case they are useful to readers, as I know not everyone eats the same as I do. Thanks for your understanding. 

OK, OK... I was supposed to be giving up coffee. That is, until I saw this recipe in Nigella Lawson's book Feast. It's a chocolate and espresso rococoa cake that's drizzled while hot with Tia Maria. I had to make it. It's easy to put together - you just whizz all the ingredients in a processor until 'moussey', bake and then dribble with Tia Maria.

The cake contains a very tiny amount of flour, giving it the texture almost of a flourless cake. It's rich, velvety and fudgy in the middle, crisp and meringue-like on the outside and because of this, it is really easy to eat. Each bite seems to dissolve in the mouth, with a rush of alcohol and powdery cocoa that's dusted over at the end.

We loved it. A proper, grown-up chocolate cake. There's also a 'caffe latte' cream that you can make up, with cream, white chocolate and espresso powder but we ate the cake as it was, without this. And seeing as I now have a whole bottle of Tia Maria sitting on my worktop, there's no excuse really not to make it again. Did someone say Christmas Day? ;)

This recipe can be found on page 292 of Feast by Nigella Lawson, published by Chatto and Windus, 2006.

What do you think of cakes with little or no flour? Do you like them?