A Chocolate Cake with a very big Bear kick!!

This is my favourite chocolate cake recipe. I found it in a book by David Lebowitz called "The Sweet life in Paris". This is a very good resource written by a famous chef from San Francisco who's partner suddenly died and he decided to sell up everything and move to Paris since it was the city of his dreams and you only live once.

Well this is his recipe (from his neighbour madame Pellas) with my own added twist of the Extreme Espresso Bear Chocolate made by friend Colleen Bowen the owner of the Salish Sea Chocolate Company. A percentage of the sale of each chocolate bar goes to the Raincoast Conservancy in British Columbia to protect the Spirit Bear habitat in the Pacific Northwest Rainforests and since I love bears this addition is very apt.
Madame Pellas likes to store this cake in her kitchen cabinet with her Brie for two days before eating it and even carries a bit around with her to nibble during the day when the moment necessitates.

so here's the basics:

Always use the best quality ingredients you can afford. If you are on a limited budget just eat less.

9 ozs (250g) dark chocolate ( in this case I used half the Extreme 70% Espresso Bear Bar and half a regular dark chocolate chocolate)
8 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1/3rd cup of sugar
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons flour
pinch of salt

............

preheat the oven to 350C and butter a loaf pan with a piece of parchment paper in the base to line.

In a double boiler/bowl set over boiling water melt the chocolate and butter until smooth, remove from the heat and mix in the egg yolks, 1/3rd of the sugar and 2 tablespoons of flour.

Whip the whites of the eggs with a pinch of salt and slowly add the remaining sugar till stiff peaks form in the mix.

Add 1/3rd of the whites to the chocolate mixture to lighten the mix then fold in the rest of the fluffy whites till the mixture is uniform.

Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 35 minutes. Rack cool and turn out.......then either eat straight away or as Madame Pellas does, store for 2 days and then indulge at whim on the bus, in the park, waiting in a movie line up or maybe just in the bath since it crumbs very well and leaves a trail of evidence around.