Chocolate Nemesis

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This recipe for the infamous Chocolate Nemesis – an indulgent, decadent, flourless chocolate cake with a rich mousse like consistency, from the legendary River Café in London – is an absolute belter! The River Café have long since shared their recipe, which serves 18, uses 10 eggs, nearly 700g of chocolate and half a kilo of butter, but even for chocaholic me, it is a tad large!

Scaling recipes up and down, particularly when baking, is not always straight forward. So I was delighted when my foodie friend Tanya, from Menu Mistress, shared an authentic recipe, but half the size! She found it on a You Tube video, posted by a chef from the River Café; she is not wrong. This recipe is outstanding.

Lyngen Lodge

I started looking for this recipe after we had it as a dessert on our trip to Lyngen Lodge last April, and I wanted to recreate it. They served theirs with a Cranberry and Red pepper Sorbet. I confess, rather than make one, I went to our local deli and bought a mango sorbet. It worked wonderfully well.

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Calling all chocolate lovers! With just 4 ingredients, plus some water, please find below, chocolate heaven.

How to make Chocolate Nemesis

Collect all your ingredients together:

• dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces
• butter (plus extra to grease the tin)
• caster sugar
• water
• eggs
• sieved cocoa powder, to decorate

Serving options:

• ice cream or sorbet
• crème fraiche or fresh cream

How to make this legendary cake:

1. First, prepare the tin – thoroughly grease and line a 24cm/9½ inch round cake tin. If the tin has a removable base, sit the tin in a double layer of kitchen foil and scrunch the foil up around the tin to create a leak-proof layer.
2. Place a folded tea towel inside a roasting tin, large enough to fit the cake tin. (This is to stop the cake tin moving around.) Place the tin on top and set aside whilst you make the cake.
3. Make the cake – chop the butter into squares and place in a microwave safe bowl with the chopped chocolate. Melt in a microwave or a bain marie and mix until smooth. (See Recipe Notes for details.)
4. Heat 100g caster sugar with the water in a saucepan over a moderate temperature. As soon as the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat.
5. Pour the remaining sugar into a large mixing bowl, with the eggs, and beat, with an electric whisk, (ideally use a freestanding mixer) until thick, creamy and quadrupled in size. This can take up to 10 minutes.
6. Mix the sugar syrup with the melted chocolate and butter, stir well.
7. Continue to whisk whilst you pour the chocolate syrup into the eggs and sugar. Mix thoroughly, until the batter is smooth and glossy.
8. Pour the cake batter into the cake tin in the roasting tin. Pour boiling water around the cake, so it comes half way up the sides of the cake, to create a bain marie.
9. Bake in the centre of a preheated oven for around an hour or until the cake has set and is very slightly coming away from the sides of the tin. Leave to cool completely in the bain marie.

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Remove the cake, from the tin, dust with cocoa and serve!

Truth be told, I’m a bit a fussy about presenting this as neatly as possible. This is how I do it, but feel free to be a bit more ‘laissez faire’ in your approach!

1. Run a hot knife between the edge of the cake and the tin to release. Cut 4 strips of baking parchment and place them over the rim of the top of the cake. (This will help to keep your plate clean when you sprinkle on the cocoa.)
2. Place your serving plate on top of the cake and baking parchment and invert.
3. The base of the cake is now the top of the cake – this is correct!
4. Sieve over a generous amount of cocoa to cover the top of the cake.
5. Remove the baking parchment strips from under the cake and voila, one perfectly covered cake and no mess on the plate!
6. This cake is exceedingly rich so serve it in small slices. I’ve served it with some mango sorbet. The cold, fruit flavour cuts through the rich chocolate perfectly. If you prefer, it is also delicious with some crème fraiche or fresh cream.
7. NB For a cleaner cut when slicing, heat the knife first. I run my knife under boiling water, dry it and then slice.

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What is the best way to store this cake?

Chocolate Nemesis is best stored, covered, in the fridge. It is also easiest to slice, ideally with a hot knife, when it has just come out of the fridge. Although it can be served directly from the fridge, I prefer the texture of the cake when it has been allowed to come to room temperature. However, this is entirely up to you; try it both ways and you decide!

Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.