Pierre Hermé’s Perfect and Easy-to-Make Chocolate Cake

I devoured Pierre Hermé’s biography with such enthusiasm that I barely took a break, and this is no small feat considering I red it in French! 🙂 Biographies fascinate me in general, but when it’s about someone close to me, someone I’ve known personally for about 15 years, even more so.

The journey Pierre Hermé traveled, from his childhood in his parents’ bakery in Alsace to becoming the maestro of the pastry world, the man who sparked a French revolution in the entire field and led it to become the incredibly renowned domain we know today, is absolutely captivating to me. It’s not every day you meet someone who creates an entire new world, who takes a field that was relatively secondary and transforms it into a universe of design, of fashion, a world of collaborations with luxury brands and top designers.

True, there are talented new pastry chefs today, a new generation of creators taking pastry to different places, but there’s only one Pierre Hermé, and all those new pastry chefs look up to him. Hermé is the deity of modern pastry, the one thanks to whom many enter this field, sometimes without even knowing what the field looked like before Hermé put it at the forefront of global culinary arts.

In his book, Hermé movingly describes his life’s journey and weaves together stories with recipes that accompanied him along the way. Without elaborate photographs, without special shapes, and without ingredients that sometimes seem inaccessible to us, just home recipes, friends’ recipes, recipes from the women in his life, like a glimpse into the personal recipe notebook of this fascinating chef.

Naturally, I started trying the recipes, and one of the cakes that I absolutely love making is “Suzy’s Chocolate Cake.” Hermé received the recipe for this simple yet excellent cake from his friend Suzy Palatin, and since then it has accompanied him through various stages of his life.

This is an exquisite chocolate cake made with only 5 ingredients. I like it a bit less sweet, so I reduced the sugar amount slightly. Additionally, I added an option for making it gluten-free. The original baking is done in a 22cm round pan, but I baked it in a ceramic dish, and Mamush and I just dig into it with a spoon. You can also serve it with excellent homemade ice cream, consider yourself warned!

Perfect Chocolate Cake
20-22cm round cake pan

Ingredients
250g quality dark chocolate 60%-70%
250g very soft butter (not melted)
160g fine or regular sugar
250g eggs (about 4 large eggs)
70g sifted flour or ground almonds for gluten-free version

Preparation
1. Grease the pan with butter and dust with flour. You can line only the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 180°C (356°F).
2. Melt chocolate using a double boiler or microwave. Cool to room temperature.
3. In a large mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar until you get an airy foam.
4. Add eggs gradually and mix until eggs are fully incorporated.
5. Add melted chocolate and mix until you get a uniform mixture.
6. Add flour and mix lightly until you get a uniform mixture.
7. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for about 30 minutes until the cake is set but not too dry. Cool to room temperature and devour.

Bon-Appétit
Sharon