Recipes

Flourless Chocolate Cake | Video

The flourless chocolate cake with Edna Lewis stencil from MarieBette Cafe and Bakery in Charlottesville, Virginia

For Patrick Evans and Jason Becton of MarieBette Café and Bakery in Charlottesville, Virginia, baking is both a science and an art with their stencil series. The series features the faces of noteworthy members of the Black and LGBTQ+ communities for Black History Month and Pride Month, respectively. They do two kinds of stencils, using powdered sugar on the flat top of a chocolate cake, which works well for more detailed stencils, or baked into the flour on top of a loaf of their sourdough bread. “You lose definition with the bread because there’s steam involved,” Evans says, “so it works better with simpler images.”

 For the first-time stenciler at home, they’ve created a simple stencil-making and bread-baking tutorial featuring a heart to encompass the spirit of their stenciling series. Check it out in their Culinary Class here.

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yields

Serves 2 to 4

    Ingredients
  • ¾ cups butter, cut into pieces
  • ¾ cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • ¾ cups plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 1¼ cups granulated sugar
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • 5 large eggs
  • Powdered sugar, for stenciling
steps
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat stove to medium-high heat and bring a a small pot filled halfway with water to a simmer. Create a double boiler by placing a medium bowl over pot, making sure it doesn’t touch water. To bowl, add butter and chocolate chips, making sure butter is on the bottom, and whisk constantly until smooth.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk to combine cocoa powder, sugar, and salt. Whisk in eggs one at a time, stirring to fully combine after each addition. Pour hot chocolate mixture into cocoa-sugar mixture and whisk fully until combined. Stop mixing once mixture has cooled and thickened.
  3. While mixture cools, prepare 2 6-inch round cake pans with nonstick spray and line bottom with parchment paper. Divide batter into prepared pans and use an offset spatula to spread evenly.
  4. Bake cakes for 30 minutes, rotating halfway through. Remove from oven and let cool, then turn out and remove parchment paper, keeping parchment side facing up for stenciling. 
  5. Once cake cools, it is ready for stenciling. Check out MarieBette’s how-to here.

Video by: Jana Cruder

Production by: Maggie Ward

Location: MarieBette Café and Bakery

  • Recipe By
    Patrick Evans and Jason Becton of MarieBette Café and Bakery, Charlottesville, Virginia
  • Contributing City
    Charlottesville
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