Flourless Dark Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Mousse and Raspberry Coulis

The second I saw this recipe featured on Eating Well, Living Thin, I knew I had to try it. It sparked my curiosity, to say the least. I didn't really understand how you could make a healthy chocolate cake, let alone one without flour! I was instantly intrigued. And since I love experimenting with unique recipes, this one immediately made it to the top of my To-Try list.


The secret ingredient? Canned BEANS. Yes, that's right. BEANS- kidney or black, either would work. Isn't that crazy? I just couldn't believe it! In the back of my mind, I thought: wow, this is going to be nasty. But I couldn't help myself. Now I really really had to try it, just to prove that little voice wrong. Especially since the author of Eating Well, Living Thin insists that this will turn out to be a "super moist and delicious cake."

(1) The Flourless Cake

After reading through some of the comments, I noticed that a lot of people left responses saying that Kidney beans work better- they give a better flavor. So that's what decided to use.

Drain and rinse the can of beans.


Pulse them in the food processor with vanilla and 1 tbsp of coffee until smooth. It'll look kinda like a freckled paste/mush. Set aside.

This bean mixture smelled delicious! Like vanilla. Vanilla Beans! Tee-hee.

Don't skip out on the coffee, even if you're not a coffee drinker. This small amount of coffee will really bring out the flavor of the cake. It makes it taste really dark and decadent- like dark chocolate. For you coffee haters out there, you can rest assured that it won't make the whole cake taste like coffee. Just do it. You'll see that I was right when you taste the cake. =)


Combine the dry ingredients- unsweetened cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.


I always use a high quality cocoa powder - Ghirardelli. It'll really make a difference. Your end product is only as good as the ingredients you put in it. =)


Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. This recipe uses very little butter and sugar. Which is what makes it a healthier cake. (One cup of sugar and less than one stick of butter for the entire cake!)

The original recipe called for a synthetic sugar, in order to make it a completely healthy and sugar-free cake. However, synthetic sugar scares the crap out of me and I would never feed it to my family. (In fact, we're moving towards organic right now, which is completely on the other end of that spectrum.) So I just went with real sugar. This cake is already healthy enough, a little real sugar won't hurt. =)

Add in 5 eggs and beat until light & fluffy.
There's a lot of protein in this cake!

Add in the bean paste.

Mix until well combined.


Mix in the dry ingredients.

The mixture seemed a bit liquidy to me. It wasn't as thick as usual cake batters. (But later, when the cake came out, I realized that it didn't matter.)


Pour into a nine inch, greased springform pan. Bake at 325 for about 35 - 40 minutes.


Allow to cool. Optional, but highly recommended: refrigerate overnight. It smelled pretty good when it came out of the oven - like a chocolate cake. Seemed promising!

(2) The Raspberry Coulis

Raspberry Coulis is basically a fancy name for raspberry sauce or syrup. It's really delicious on pancakes. You can use fresh berries or frozen ones. I used a bag of sweetened frozen raspberries.

It's really easy to make. You just combine water, sugar, and the berries in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer for about 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

You can adjust the sugar to your liking. Add more for a sweeter sauce, less if you like it tart.


Puree with a blender or food processor. Then here comes the hard part: push the sauce through a fine mesh sieve. Sounds easy but it actually takes a long time to do, because of all the seeds. You'll need a large sized sieve. A small one won't work. Put the sieve over a bowl.


Use a spatula to push the raspberry sauce over the sieve, using a back and forth, side to side motion. Spread it over the entire sieve as much as you can. The sauce will be thick, so it won't just run out the other side. Once in a while, turn the sieve around and scrape the sauce from the back side. This will allow more to be pushed through.

Do it in batches. Pour 1/3 of the sauce into the sieve each time. When you can't get any more out, and it's mainly just seeds left (pictured above), discard and pour another 1/3 of the sauce into the sieve. It takes practice. You'll see what I mean when you start to do it. It sounds more complicated than it actually is. Ok, I retract what I said earlier- it's not necessarily hard, just time consuming.


But it's worth it! Afterward, you'll get this gorgeous and oh-so-delicious raspberry sauce!

(3) White Chocolate Mousse

The white chocolate mousse is really easy to make. It's basically melted white chocolate folded into whipped cream. Start with your white chocolate. Make sure to use a good quality one with real cocoa butter in it.

Chop it up into pieces, then melt until completely smooth. Set aside to cool.

Now, start on your whipped cream.

Beat the heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Then add in the melted white chocolate. Beat for another 30 seconds until everything is well combined.

When you're done, it should still pretty much look like whipped cream. Only now it's white chocolate flavored whipped cream! =) Use right away- this does not keep well.

(4) Putting it all together

You'll need some fresh raspberries, of course!

I dusted it with powdered sugar, then added the mousse and fresh raspberries on top! Simple but elegant.


To serve, drizzle the raspberry coulis over the cake and decorate with extra whipped cream and fresh raspberries!


Wow, this cake turned out to be gorgeous! Wouldn't it be the perfect dessert for a romantic Valentine's day dinner? =) You can serve it up in many creative ways!

Alright, here's the moment you've all been waiting for: The REVIEW. How did it stack up?

*Drumroll*


*Suspense*

It was absolutely DIVINE. I can honestly say that it was one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever tasted! And by far one of my favorites!!!

I tested it out on my family and friends. No one could guess that there were beans it in! And everyone went crazy for it- saying that it was one of their favorite cakes! Crazy, eh? I can't believe that so many different people came to the same independent conclusion: that a crazy bean cake was one of the best they've had!

Here are the facts:

1. It was insanely moist and fluffy! It can definitely hold its own among "real" cakes.

2. It tasted so decadent, like biting into a really awesome dark chocolate bar. And I don't even like dark chocolate! The splash of coffee really enhanced the chocolate flavor, giving the illusion that you're eating a really fancy dark chocolate cake.

3. Although it tasted decadent, it wasn't actually heavy on the palate, amazingly enough! You know how when you bite into a chocolate torte or heavy chocolate cake, it's so rich that you take three bites of it, and you're done? Well, this one's just the opposite! It was light and fluffy, therefore making it light on the palate. You could literally sit there and eat the entire cake without feeling like it was too rich! And without feeling too guilty! =)

4. The raspberry sauce and white chocolate mousse were the perfect parings for this cake! Since the cake lacked sugar and tasted like a great dark chocolate bar, the sides really complimented its flavor and added a little bit more sweetness, without having it be too sweet. All of the components put together was simply... perfect.

5. I would highly suggest refrigerating it overnight before decorating and serving. I found that the flavors of the cake really pulled together the next day. It's one of those rare cakes that tastes better when cold and straight out of the fridge. When I tasted it after it had cooled on the first day, I thought that I could detect a little bit of the beans in it. But after it had rested in the fridge overnight, it was perfect! It tasted like a super fancy dark chocolate cake- with no bean flavor what so ever!


So there you have it: my favorite cake of all time is not even a legitimate cake! lol. I urge all of you to give this cake a try- for no reason other than the fact that it's strange and interesting!



Click HERE for the recipes!