Gateau au Chocolat à la Fleur de Sel et Huile d’Olive (Chocolate Cake with Olive Oil and Fleur De Sel)

I always believe in great things happen when you least expect them.

When the lovely Dominique from France visited me in Sydney, she brought along two cans of Fleur de Sel (Brittany sea salt) all the way from from her home town Brittany for Billy and me.

During one of the casual chat with Billy, he urged me to try this recipe using the fleur de sel which he claimed to be 'out of this world'.

And I did. The following day. It was a very simple recipe. The chocolate cake was baked with butter (not olive oil as I initially thought). Fleur de sel was sprinkled on the cake when served & olive oil was poured on the side.

It does sound interesting but do I like it? As you probably know by now, as a purist, I still prefer my chocolate cake to be eaten with ganache, whipped cream or perhaps a large scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The best thing comes out of it is that I discovered the best chocolate cake recipe when I wasn't even looking for it. I have to say this chocolate cake is outstanding. I have to agreed with Billy that it's moist and dense like a chocolate brownie. The icing on the cake is that this cake is extremely easy to make.

I encourage you to give the fleur de sel and olive oil a try. If it's not your cup of tea, at least there is a great chocolate cake to devour.

Gateau au Chocolate à la Fleur de Sel et Huile d'Olive

(Chocolate Cake with Olive Oil and Sea Salt)
(Adapted from Trish Deseinea's Nobody Does It Better...)

Ingredients

200g dark chocolate (min 70% cocoa solids)
200g unsalted butter
4 medium eggs
150g caster sugar
60g plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
Extra virgin olive oil
Fleur de sel (sea salt)

Methods

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Grease and flour a 22cm sandwich tin.
2. Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of hot simmering water. add butter and stir well to mix the two ingredients completely.
3. Put the eggs and the sugar in a bowl and whisk with kitchen mixer until the mixture turns pale and doubles in volume. Add the flour, a tablespoonful at a time, and the baking powder.
4. Mix in the chocolate mixture, pour the lot into the prepared sandwich tin and bake for 30-40 minutes. The cake is cooked when a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
5. Leave the cake to cool for 15 minutes before turning out.
6. To serve, cut the cake into slices, set them on plain white plates and pour some extra virgin olive oil around. Sprinkle with some fluer de sel on the cake and serve.