Mom's French Chocolate Birthday Cake

This is the birthday cake I made for my mother this year. This time I wanted to do something a little different rather than the typical birthday celebration cake, since my mother isn't always a fan of heavy cakes and lots of icing or fondant. I still wanted to make a cake, just not a "decorated" cake, not that this cake contains no garnishes either. Since we all like chocolate, we settled on a flourless chocolate cake. I am not sure why the word "flourless" paired with chocolate cake sounds so appealing, but it does. Flourless chocolate cakes are known to be deep, dense, rich, and for a bonus, gluten-free if that's a concern for you (though it certainly isn't in this household). Many flourless chocolate cake recipe make use of ground nuts, most commonly almonds, to replace the flour in the recipe. However, French chocolate cakes are different. They rely on a lot of chocolate, usually melted chocolate and not cocoa, and several eggs to give them volume. The egg whites and yolks are always beaten separately, and the peaked egg whites provide the lift to the cake. Some recipes also call for a cup of whipping cream for extra richness and volume. This creates a soufflé-like cake texture - light and fluffy, but still rich and chocolaty. It is important not to overbake, or the cake will dry out and not be moist and rich. Garnishes should be kept fairly simple - a dusting of icing sugar, a dollop of whipped cream, some fresh fruit, toasted nuts, or a drizzle of chocolate sauce. And for the best quality and flavor, better quality chocolate should be used, since that is what composes the bulk of the cake. 

This "flourless" chocolate cake actually does contain a small amount of flour, but it is optional. I have included it just for stability purposes, but the cake will be fine without it. Alternately, an equal amount of a gluten-free flour or ground nut may be substituted as well.

To decorate my mother's birthday cake, I had to include piping to say Happy Birthday, as it is a cake for a birthday occasion after all. I simply used a small batch of my vanilla buttercream to pipe this, then I piped eight swirls around the outside of the cake. I took some fancy waffle cookies I had on hand, cut them into irregularly shaped pieces, and dipped the edges into some additional melted bittersweet chocolate, and stuck them in the swirls to garnish. I then added a few buttercream flowers and a buttercream border around the bottom. 
Happy Birthday Mom!