Ever so many years ago, at Seva restaurant in Ann Arbor, I had the most amazing dessert ever. It was intensely chocolatey, dense, and absolutely delicious. Afterward, I spent years ordering desserts at Seva to try to find out what the amazing dessert was.

After ten or fifteen years of ordering desserts there, I finally found it again! It turned out to be Chocolate Decadence. I’ve been a huge fan ever since!

The original recipe is here — though today it is behind a paywall.

My version is adapted to be gluten-free and dairy-free. Also, I found that it is much more likely to come out perfectly if you “bake” it in the microwave instead of in a conventional oven.

My birthday is coming soon, and my kids are going to bake this for me, so I am putting the recipe online so that they can make this. It’s been many years since anybody offered to make me a birthday cake, so I am very excited and pleased that they would do this!

The attached photo is a chocolate decadence cake, with cashew cream decorations, that I made when my son Arlo turned sixteen. He is 21 now, so that was a long time ago!

Print Recipe

Chocolate Decadence - gluten-free, dairy-free, and amazing!

This is the Chocolate Decadence recipe I spent years searching for! Densely chocolate, gluten-free, dairy-free, and amazingly delicious!

Prep Time10

Cook Time6

Total Time16

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 10 servings

Author: Valerie Mates

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups chocolate chips I like Equal Exchange Semisweet chocolate chips in this recipe
1/4 cup organic canola oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon potato starch
4 eggs
optional: whipped cream or cashew cream for decorating to make cashew cream, use a sturdy blender to blend 3/4 cup cashews with 6 tablespoons of water

Instructions

In a mixing bowl in the microwave, melt the chocolate chips and the oil together, by microwaving for 30 seconds at a time, then stirring, then microwaving again, until everything is melted and stirred smooth. The idea is to get the mixture to about body temperature, not very hot, because you don't want the chocolate to cook the eggs before you can stir them in.
Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Stir carefully until thoroughly mixed.
Pour the mixture into an oiled microwave-safe pie plate
Microwave for 3 minutes. Use a thermometer to make sure that the center has reached at least 180 degrees Fahrenheit. If it hasn't, microwave for another 30 to 60 seconds, then check again, and repeat as needed. Depending on your microwave, it might take as much as six minutes of microwaving to cook through. The pie plate may get very hot - handle it carefully, with pot holders!
Refrigerate overnight, and then optionally decorate it with whipped cream or cashew cream.
This cake is very dense, so it is best served as thin slices.