Recipe of the day: The best flourless chocolate cake ever

It's my go-to dinner party dessert, back in the day when you could have dinner parties.

Every time I've interviewed him, I tell him how much I love this cake, and he loves it too, and he loves that I love it.

For him writing cookbooks is all about people cooking and enjoying his food.

It's a good cake to have in your repertoire these days, it doesn't use flour and is even better the day after.

Ingredients

200g dark coverture chocolate, chopped

120g unsalted butter, chopped

5 eggs, 3 of them separated

30g Dutch-processed cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting

250g castor sugar

100g almond meal

1 tsp cream of tartar

1 250g punnet blueberries, to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 175C and grease and line a 23cm springform cake tin.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in a large heatproof bowl set over a small saucepan of just-simmering water. It's important not to allow any steam or water to get into the bowl. (To avoid this, try melting the chocolate and butter in the microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring in between.) Remove from the heat, stir well to combine and leave to cool.

In a separate bowl, use a hand whisk to combine the two whole eggs, the three egg yolks, the cocoa powder and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Fold in the almond meal, then stir in the cooled melted chocolate mixture until just combined.

Make sure you have a large bowl that is completely clean and dry. Add the egg whites and cream of tartar and whisk to soft peaks with an electric mixer. Fold into the chocolate batter immediately, a third at a time, until just combined.

Pour the cake batter into your prepared tin and bake for about 25 minutes. Turn off the oven, prop the door slightly ajar and leave the cake to cool completely.

To serve, release the cake from the tin and transfer it to an attractive cake plate. Dust it with the extra cocoa powder and pile on the blueberries. You could also use raspberries or strawberries ... or even a mixture of all three! But that would be far less classy.

Tip: More often than not, flourless cakes are better the day after they are made.

Serves 10-12.

Recipe from The Simple Secrets to Cooking Everything Better, by Matt Preston. Plum. $39.99.