Critic’s Notebook: Chocolate cake in a jar is my latest obsession

These little jars of flourless chocolate cake have become my latest pantry staple. They are intensely dark and dense, more like fudge than cake. One little jar is enough for two people to share.

Freshly baked flourless chocolate cakes in a jar from Fermentation Farm in Costa Mesa (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Fermentation Farm is a health-food store turned restaurant in Costa Mesa where fanatics go for kombucha fixes. I don’t care for kombucha, but I love these little cakes in a jar. The restaurant serves these for dessert, and they also stock the same exact jars in the refrigerated retail case for about half the price. They are basically foolproof. Store them in your fridge (up to several weeks), and whenever the chocolate craving hits, pop one of these jars into the oven for 30 minutes.

They are very dark, so it’s hard to eat them without cream. At the restaurant, they serve a vanilla-bean-whipped cream sweetened with coconut sugar, which is delicious. At home you’ll have to make your own, which is easily done while the cake bakes. I don’t stock my pantry with coconut sugar, but I almost always have vanilla beans and powdered sugar on hand.

I had driven past this cafe a million times before finally stopping recently. I used to think of Victoria Street as a shortcut. But now it’s become a pitstop.