I made this for a birthday dinner and it was through the roof amazing! I cooked the base cake a little longer as others had mentioned. The prep for this recipe is a little longer then i generally like when i bake BUT it was so worth the extra steps- people were and still are raving about this recipe! It will be my new special birthday treat! I served it with whip cream and raspberries- yum yum yum! Stop reading the reviews and go make this cake!

I made this recipe for tonight's New Year's celebration and succeeded completely. What a fabulous cake!!! I read the reviews ahead of making the cake and knew to bake the chocolate cake a little longer (about 10 minutes more and it still was a little wiggly inside). After having added the meringue I baked it another 35-40 minutes until a wooden test stick came out almost clean. The cake was delicious and looked just like in the picture. The longer prep time was well worth it.

I did it and looks exactly like the picture, will try tonight for dinner. The timing was perfect for both cake and meringue (I have a convection oven). I used chocolate 70% cacao and changed the hazelnut for nuts. looks delicious, cant wait to try!

Delicious! Almost more than a pudding than a cake I found though. I would bake it longer before topping with meringue, mine was almost raw in the middle using the posted baking time.

This cake was yummy, at first I used percartened egg whites and the meringue didn't peek so definitively always use fresh egg whites. But that could just be my own rookie mistake. Will definitively make this for my next dinner party or family gathering all of us are chocoholics ;)

could peanuts be used in place of hazlenuts?

Does anyone know if you can make the chocolate portion of the cake ahead of time and then just add add the meringue portion and bake for 30 mins before serving? I want to bring this to a dinner party and I don't have time to make it all right before the party...any suggestions?

Absolutely fabulously delicious. It's best eaten warm. Next time I'll make it in a 10" pan. And Frangelico instead of rum would be nice, too.

Do I need to make the meringue in a bowl over hot water?

An delicious, decadent and impressive looking cake. One of my families favorite deserts by far, and not too difficult to make!