San Francisco Bakery Vive La Tarte Chocolate Cake

If all the time spent indoors has given you a whole new baking itch that you still don’t know what to do with, try this chocolate cake. It’s decidedly simple, with just a single layer, and no extra frills – other than a few berries and powdered sugar, which are good if you have it but okay if you don’t.

The other great thing about this cake during the pandemic is its list of ingredients: chocolate, butter, sugar, eggs, flour. You might have everything in your pantry right now.

The recipe comes from Vive La Tarte by Arnaud Goethals and Julie Vandermeersch, a charming bakery with locations in San Francisco’s SoMa, Noe Valley and the Ferry Building (the one in Noe Valley is currently the only one open for pickup on weekends). end, if you order in advance). Vive La Tarte is perhaps best known for its inventive croissants, filled with coconut cream, flavored with orange blossom and za’atar, and folded over eggs and avocado like a petit taco. -breakfast.

But this simple Belgian chocolate cake is a cohesive spectacle in the case of pastry making for good reason. It is deep and rich, with a nice sweet-salty balance.

Vive La Tarte chocolate cake

Make a 9 inch cake; serves 8

One of the reasons it’s a great cake to try during coronavirus is its short, indulgent ingredient list. Do you only have dark chocolate? No problem, the result will be extra intense and delicious. You can also substitute all-purpose flour for baking flour. The crumb won’t be as tender, but you probably won’t notice the difference. The cake will keep wrapped at room temperature for four days.

1½ cups (9 ounces) chopped dark chocolate, ideally 64% to 68% cocoa

½ cup (3 ounces) of milk chocolate

3 The sticks (1½ cups) Unsalted butter

1 Sugar

6 large eggs

1½ cups of pastry flour

Flaky sea salt to taste

Seasonal berries

Granulated sugar

Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch round cake pan with parchment paper and spray with nonstick skillet spray. Put aside.

Place dark and milk chocolates and butter in medium heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water (the bowl should not touch the water) and stir constantly until chocolate and butter are melted and combined.

Transfer the melted chocolate mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk. Add the sugar and mix on high speed until incorporated, about 1 minute. Slowly add the eggs one at a time and mix until well blended and the mixture has a smooth and shiny texture, about 2 minutes. Add the flour and continue to mix until well combined, scraping the bowl as needed. Make sure you don’t over mix.

Pour half of the dough into your cake tin and sprinkle with salt. Garnish with the rest of the dough. Bake in the oven until cracks appear around the edges of the cake and the middle shakes slightly but a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with moist crumbs rather than wet dough, 25 to 30 minutes . Turn the cake halfway through baking.

Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Run a knife around the edges and turn to remove the cake then let cool completely (it will set as it cools). Serve with fresh seasonal berries and a dusting of powdered sugar.

This recipe has been updated with a new baking temperature and longer baking time, along with specific cooling instructions, after several Chronicle readers said the cake took longer to bake than expected.