I once liked this girl, who was gluten intolerant. She was coming to a party, so I thought I’d be all cool and make this gluten-free chocolate cake for her. It turned out, she also had a dairy allergy, and so she couldn’t eat the torte. So there we all were, eating this cake, and she was stuck eating carrots…

Torte RECIPE
serves 8
10oz bittersweet (60%) chocolate bar
1 stick butter
6 eggs
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c almonds
2 T gluten-free AP flour
1 T vanilla

1 c heavy cream
powdered sugar

1. Grease a 9 in springform cake or tart pan. Preheat oven to 300˚.
2. Blend or crush nuts until finely ground.
3. Cut butter into pieces, and chop chocolate.
4. In a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water, melt chocolate and butter together.
5. In another bowl, combine the egg yolks and sugar, and beat with an electric mixer until pale yellow and thick, about 3 min.
6. Slowly add melted chocolate/butter into the egg yolks/sugar and whisk to combine.
7. Then add the nuts and vanilla.
8. In a clean bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff white peaks form.
9. Fold the egg whites into the batter with a rubber spatula until just combined.
10. Pour into the cake pan and bake for 35-45 min. Until the center barely jiggles when you tap it, or a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle.

When cooled, sprinkle the top with powdered sugar. Serve with whipped cream and some wine-soaked strawberries

Wine-Soaked Strawberries RECIPE
1 c red wine
1 pint of strawberries
1/2 c sugar

1. Wash and cut the strawberries.
2. Over medium heat, cook the wine, strawberries, and sugar in a pan, gently stirring to coat the berries.
3. Cook a few minutes until the strawberries are tender and the sauce thickens.
4. You can serve the strawberries warm or chilled. They’re also good on top of yogurt or ice cream.