Generally Elliott isn't really a dessert person, so when I've asked him what kind of birthday cake he wants it's usually one of four things: (1) Sour cream coffee cake his mom used to make - I have the recipe for this, but so does the rest of his family and I think his sister makes it better than I do. (2) Triple chocolate espresso cake - this is something his mom made but there's no recipe. For all we know, it might have come from a box. I've tried making something that fits the description a few times, but have always failed so I've kind of given up on this one. (3) Key lime pie - I've made one before that Elliott likes, but I don't love key lime pie and it's kind of hard to serve to a group of people. (4) Dark chocolate cake with raspberry sauce that was served at Elliott's bar mitzvah. Again, no recipe here, but I figured of all the options, this was the one I was most likely to be able to replicate.
Anyways, I ended up making a flour-less chocolate cake from King Arthur Flour. I followed the recipe pretty much exactly with a few modifications (and a couple things I wish I had done). I also made a raspberry sauce based on a recipe I found online. Overall, I thought the result was pretty good and Elliott said it was very much like the cake he'd had at his bar mitzvah so I'm recording it here so it's possible to make it again in the future.
Changes I made:
Subbed unsweetened chocolate for the bittersweet chocolate and increased the sugar by 30g. I did this because that was what I had on hand, but I don't think I'd make this substitution again.
Skipped the espresso powder and used 2 tsp of vanilla instead. I bet it would be good with the espresso powder, I just didn't have any and this seemed to work fine.
I cooked this for the full 25 min recommended, but I think it was over baked. I have a convection oven and I'd recommend closer to 20 min if using a convection oven.
The glaze came out a bit lumpy for me. I attempted to make it in the microwave to save time, but this may have resulted in the cream being over heated? Anyways, I think next time, I'd find a recipe that actually called for a microwave if I did it this way again.
Changes I made:
I halved the recipe because that's how much a bag of frozen raspberries contains
I left out the lemon juice