One of my new college friends is gluten-intolerant. I was reminded of this every time my mom sent me cookies or brownies or something during finals week and I enthusiastically offered her one, and she had to remind me about the gluten intolerance, which made me feel a bit dumb and somewhat guilty. Once I was home again a few weeks ago, I decided to take advantage of the fact that she would be sticking around for another few days, and bake her some gluten-free goodies.
I found a simple recipe for flourless chocolate cake in Good Housekeeping's Chocolate recipe book, and changed it only in that I baked it in greased muffin tins instead of actual cake pans. In terms of flavor, the miniature cakes turned out quite nicely; moist, very rich, enough texture that it felt like cake and not fudge. Unfortunately, miniaturizing the cakes meant that upon cooling, the cakes contracted quite a bit, so they were kind of weird looking.
Because I'm me, and I have a little bit of a thing against frosting, and I feel that a flourless cake-with chunks of chocolate-is rich enough without adding ganache or buttercream, I decided to top the mini cakes simply with fresh whipped cream and strawberries.
