Chocolate and Almond Tiger Cake

Anyone use three whole eggs rather than six egg whites? What about you, Dorie? How different could it be? I'm inclined to try it...

Lightly whisk means enough to break them up, but not so much that you're aerating them in any significant way.

Absolutely delicious and easy. I did not make the topping . I dusted the serving plates lightly with cocoa powder and powdered sugar.

@Paul Joseph, I haven't tried this recipe yet but, typically you cannot substitute whole eggs for whites. It's the science of baking. Both yolks and whites contain a significant amount of water, but the whites are albumin protein with no fat, and the yolks contain protein and fat (about 32%) which would change the chemistry of the formula. Save the yolks to enrich an egg dish or make a custard or a curd with them. Two desserts! Win-win.

I had some leftover ganache in the fridge, and leftover egg whites in the freezer, so the recipe spoke to me. It was simply wonderful! I might consider adding some almond extract to this the next time I make it. I love that flavor profile. I didn't do any whisking of the egg whites (forgot), but I don't think it affected the outcome. One caveat: I used a wax paper round , buttered & floured , in the pan, which is my usual habit. I had a little trouble removing the wax paper. It stuck a bit.

What does "lightly whisk" mean? Soft peaks?

Truly delicious. Made twice. First with almonds, then pistachios. It's superb with ground pistachios. Used normal salted pistachios, which we shelled, ground in a high-power blender (have to stir up the un-ground nuts a few times) with the sugar, then sieved. It's only a small hassle. Also, second time, used chopped semi-sweet chocolate chips, chopped in a food processor until sizes of sesame-seed to peppercorns. Baked as 6 muffins (24 minutes at 375°) super-convection oven.

Maybe making it completely as the recipe called for would improve it.

For those of you interested in sweets baked in mini muffin pans, Dorie had a recipe for Tiger Tea Cakes in "Paris Sweets" many years ago. She repeated the recipe, somewhat modified, in "Baking Chez Moi." I've been baking them in mini muffin pans for many years, and always get rave reviews. I dip half in ganache and leave half plain. They're delicious both ways. This recipe, which I haven't baked yet, has significantly different ratios of butter to eggs to almond flour, and I'll have to try it.

I just made this for the second time. Just a couple of changes elevated this recipe from very good to fabulous. First, I added a tsp of almond extract. The other key element is to make sure that the finely chopped chocolate does not include any of the powder since this greatly affects the consistency and the color of the cake. That said, the pieces need to be small enough not to sink to the bottom but do not include the powder. Instead use the powder as part of the measurement for the ganache.

Can we use egg whites from a carton?

Hi Zelda (and all others asking about making this recipe GF)- first forgive me for not exactly addressing the issue of using all almond flour. May I suggest an alternative? It would be to use GF flour in place of wheat flour (rather than using all almond flour). I have had particularly good results using King Arthur Flour's "Measure for Measure" GF flour as a substitute in recipes like this, when it is not 100% wheat flour-based (since a fair amount of the "flour" is almond). Good luck!

Could you make this with all almond flour (gluten-free? )

The only note I’d add is that I toasted the sliced almonds in about a half Tbsp of butter in a skillet over medium heat, stirring til lightly browned. Delicious little cake that I’ll definitely add to my repertoire!

it was dry and flavorless because you reduced the sugar. Adding orange zest or extract will change the flavor only. I recommend making a recipe exactly as written before decreasing or increasing major ingredients. Try it again as written.