Sixteen Candles

My son Raoul is sixteen today. Although he is not celebrating it with the same intensity as a girl would her Sweet Sixteenth and is happy to simply take his friends bowling and give them pizza, he still wants me to bake him a cake. For me it feels like he is on the threshhold of adulthood with driving permits, endless activities and planning for college, looming ahead. While all of this fogs up my brain I am well aware that his expectations are high. The cake can't be anything less than spectacular!

Chocolate is our family's preferred flavor when it comes to cake, dark chocolate with a hint of coffee being Raoul's all time favorite. The Giardelli cookbook has some of the best chocolate recipes although I cheat and use Nestle's bitter sweet chocolate bits instead of the recommended Giardelli chocolate. So I picked the Flourless Mocha Torte and decorated it with peanut butter bits. The results were exactly what I'd hoped for....

Recipe for Flourless Mocha Torte:
6 oz bitter sweet chocolate
1 tbsp instant coffee mixed into 3 tbsp boiling water
6 large eggs separated
2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Frosting:
4 oz milk chocolate
1 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water
2 cups heavy cream
Peanut butter chips for decorating (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease 2-  8" pans. Line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper.
2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Add in the coffee and mix well. Cool to room temp.
3. Whip the egg whites till doubled in volume. Add in 1/3 of the sugar. Whip till it forms stiff peaks.
4. Whip the yolks in a separate bowl with the remaining sugar and the salt.
5. Add the chocolate/coffee mixture into the yolks.
6. Fold the egg whites slowly into this mixture well until it is evenly mixed through.
7. Pour into the tins and bake for 25 mins. Leave in the oven for an additional 5 minutes. Cool the cakes and ice.

For the frosting:
1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and mix in the coffee. Cool completely.
2. Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Fold in the chcolate/coffee mixture and ice cake. Decorate with the peanut butter chips.

Note: I put sixteen candles on the cake; trick candles that keep ligting up. It was a laugh until the candles almost set fire to the cake!