Flourless Chocolate Cake with Meringue Topping

K and I are back home. Back to Y (yay!!) and getting back to normal - tonight marks night three of making dinner. We are not yet back to our normal sleeping habits though. K's jet lag is awful. He was raring to go at 3am and then proceeded to scream, not cry, scream, for about an hour before getting back to sleep. There was no consoling him. It was awful.

Anyway, while we were on holiday, Saturday mornings meant breakfast with my mom's friends. We usually headed to the same bakery/cafe for coffee and morning sweets. It is our first Saturday morning at home and I'm having Indulgence withdrawal. On our last Saturday morning breakfast gathering, we decided that I would bake up a cake in the afternoon and the friends and their significant others would come over for a little party.

Before I had arrived at my parents', one of my mom's friends loaned her the Food Network Magazine March (?) edition - it was the chocolate edition. She left it with my mom in case I wanted to do some baking while I was there. Everything in it looked AMAZING. It was the perfect occasion to make something from the magazine. So the Flourless Chocolate Cake with Meringue Topping was born.

I had the help of my little brother and his girlfriend, while my parents helped by taking K off to the train museum for a few hours (I imagine it was his best day ever - he rode on a Tomas train!!).

I also had the help of a KitchenAid mixer. My word, does this make life so much easier! You have no idea what I would do to own one of these.

The cake was very decadent and extremely delicious. The gathering ended up turning into quite the party. One of my friends from college stopped by, as well as my old high school math teacher, his wife and son, who is my little brother's roommate. We polished off three bottles of champagne, about a half of a handle of cake vodka (more on this amazing vodka to follow at some point), and countless beers. With all of those people, we were left with only one slice of cake. It was eyeballed by many, but it seemed no one wanted to take the plunge. Just as well, my mom and I split it the following day.

The party was such a great time and I am so stoked that we were able to go out with a bang!

On a different note, for those of you following the birthday present saga, I tried it on the table when we got home and it fits PERFECTLY!!! Thank goodness! I will post photos once the little guy turns 2 and sees it for himself.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3