The magnificent Queen of Sheba Cake, France’s Reine de Saba, is a chocolate almond cake everyone needs in their repertoire. Considering its unpretentious appearance and how simple it is to make, it is an unexpectedly exquisite cake. I’ve never had a guest not be pleasantly surprised by its deliciousness.
A long weekend was coming up recently. This naturally sparked a craving for an amazing dessert. Something chocolaty with coffee-flavors and amazing texture were on our wish list. I felt an urge to try something new. But after browsing some rather entailed recipes — that we would probably love — our enthusiasm waned. Our energy wasn’t quite up for all that work. Then! We remembered the beloved Reine de Saba, the Queen of Sheba cake. It had everything we wanted, and without a long protocol. Whew!
We originally found one of Julia Child’s versions of Simone Beck’s recipe for the French Reine de Saba cake years ago, and have enjoyed it countless times over the decades since. I can see why Julia Child claimed it as her favorite chocolate cake. If you’ve never made the Queen of Sheba cake in your life, my heartfelt recommendation is that you do, sooner than later. Because once you do, it can become a standing part of your repertoire, for you and yours to enjoy for years to come.
It’s funny. We have served or brought the Reine de Saba cake to many get-togethers of all kinds, fancy, casual, and in different countries, over the years, and we always get the same reaction. At first, people’s faces convey expectations of a rather boring cake! But its ordinary appearance belies. Upon first bite, they are captivated, and their expressions unanimously change to surprise, relief and great enthusiasm. I feel the same way, and this cake has a longstanding place at our table that endures all trends.
Ingredients
The Chocolate
I recommend choosing your chocolate well, as it has a big role in the quality and your enjoyment of the cake. I like to use chocolate with about 60-70% cacao, such as Callebaut, Guittard, Lindt Excellence, Sharfen Berger, Valrohna, Venchi—the best I can find at the moment. You can use semisweet chocolate bars, broken into pieces, big blocks of chocolate—I shave up the quantity I need with a serrated bread knife—or super convenient chocolate wafers that are ready to quickly measure out and melt.
Choosing Your Flavor Accent for The Chocolate.
Choose according to your taste or mood. I usually use espresso coffee. You could also use coffee liqueur, or strong coffee. Rum nicely accentuates the almond flavor. When in the mood for the subtlest hint of orange, Grand Marnier or Cointreau adds a beautiful touch. And If you don’t have any of these on hand, you can always just sub in milk.
Almond Flour
For the almond flour, I often use Bob’s Red Mill super-fine almond flour from blanched almonds (skins off). But it’s easy to make almond flour yourself (how to make almond flour). Either way, you can use or make almond flour with the skins on as well as off.
How to Make the Queen of Sheba Cake
Here is a little overview of making the Queen of Sheba with photos and helpful tips. Be sure to check out the recipe for full instructions.
Separate eggs.
Beat soft butter and sugar together until fluffy, then beat in egg yolks.
Melt chocolate.
Tips on Melting the Chocolate
When melting chocolate with a liquid, they need to be warmed up together at the same time. Otherwise, temperature differences can cause the chocolate to seize up on you, becoming a hard lump. Not fun. (If this happens, try whisking in a spoon of warm liquid or neutral cooking oil and trying again.)
Melting Chocolate in a Bain-Marie (Double Boiler)
To melt chocolate takes very little heat. Even our body temperature melts it in our hand! Direct heat can easily be too much. That’s why using a bain-marie setup or double boiler is nice. And you can easily make your own with a heatproof bowl and a pan. Below are some tips when melting chocolate.
- In spite of it being called a double boiler, you don’t actually want the water to be boiling, which can burn the chocolate. You want just enough heat to warm the pan and gently melt the chocolate.
- To prevent the chocolate from getting too hot, you can even turn the burner off and let the steam from the hot water below continue to melt the chocolate.
- Stir occasionally to check how much it has melted, and to help it melt smoothly.
- Take it off the heat the very second the chocolate is melted, so as not to overcook it.
Instructions are also included for using the microwave in the notes of the recipe card.
Blend melted chocolate into butter mixture. Beat egg whites.
Whipping the Egg Whites
To ensure success whipping the egg whites, use a clean dry bowl with clean dry beaters or whisk. Any yolk (or any fat) in the whites can compromise your goal. The fresher the eggs, the better stability. It’s also ideal to use the eggs at room temperature, as they whip up more easily.
Sugar is an essential stabilizer and helps protect the egg whites from the effects of over-whipping and becoming granular. We wait until halftime to add it though, for the simple reason that egg whites take longer to whip once sugar is added. You can also use cream of tartar to help out with stability, but in that case, add it at the beginning.
Add almond extract, then alternate folding in almond flour, egg whites and flour. Bake!
Don’t Overcook It!
It’s done when
only a 1-Inch border
looks dry.
#1 Tip: Keep a keen eye on it after 15 minutes in the oven. This is an intentionally undercooked cake, where a few extra minutes in the oven can cancel its moist creamy texture.
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Elegantly Simple Decorating
Queen of Sheba cake is actually already great without any frosting. (Tip: if not frosting the cake, use cocoa powder to dust the sides of the cake tin so that the sides of the finished cake don’t turn out white.) If you want to add a little decor, you could just give it a dusting of powdered sugar around the border, or use a homemade paper stencil to make designs. Dusting the cake with a little cocoa powder is nice too, taking care to spread the cocoa powder thin so that it doesn’t trigger a coughing response. (Or am I the only one that happens to?)
Frosting
Queen of Sheba is even better with chocolate buttercream frosting or chocolate ganache. Ganache is the quicker and easier of the two. You can frost it and leave it at that, or you could use a vegetable peeler with a block of chocolate to top it with a few simple chocolate curls.
Decorating with Almonds
Sliced almonds are often used as a final decorating touch for the Queen of Sheba cake, without or with frosting. I usually don’t include them, but just wanted to mention it! You could lightly dry roast them in a skillet and place them at the bottom of the cake tin before pouring the batter in. Or you can sprinkle some on top of the frosting. When I do use them, I like to leave the smooth creamy chocolate frosting on top just the way it is, and just press a few almond slices on the sides. I’ve included an easy way to do this in the recipe card notes.
Serving
This cake makes 8 decent size servings, even 10 — although my husband begs to differ and says 6. Resist any idea of serving the Queen of Sheba cake with ice cream (or anything else). Even I, deeply fond of ice cream, can see it only serves as a distraction here. This cake deserves your full focus.
Storing
If frosted, either with chocolate buttercream frosting or chocolate ganache, we tend to leave the cake out on the counter at room temperature for 2 days. This is if it lasts that long, or if we don’t whisk some off to the freezer. After that, it’s best kept in the fridge. Take out at least 1 to 2 hours before serving. Francesco likes it on the cool side. I like it closer to room temperature, which generally takes about 1½ hours.
Queen of Sheba cake freezes beautifully. Hub thinks it’s even better. We often freeze it in portions, and there is nothing better than remembering you have a few slices of delicious cake in the freezer to enjoy on a special evening.
Related
Tools
- Cake Tin 8" round by 2" high (20x5cm)
Ingredients
- 4 oz butter (8 Tbsp or 1 stick ), at room temperature
- ½ heaping cup sugar + 1 Tbsp for egg whites
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature, separated (put whites in large enough bowl to whip)
- 4 oz chocolate 60-70% cacao, chopped or broken into small pieces
- 2 Tbsp espresso or strong coffee (or rum, Grand Marnier, Cointreau or your favorite liquor)
- ¾ cup almond flour (or pulverize ½ cup whole almonds in a food processor)
- 1 tsp almond extract
- ½ cup cake flour (or 7 Tbsp all-purpose flour + 1½ tsp cornstarch)
- frosting (optional): chocolate buttercream frosting, or easy chocolate ganache
Instructions
Thinking Ahead
- Take butter and eggs out of refrigerator to come to room temperature.
Prep
- Measure and prepare all of the ingredients.
- Butter and flour* the sides of the cake tin, and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper. Set the oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
Make the Cake
- Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer at medium speed, or a whisk, until pale yellow and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and beat until blended.
- Heat the chocolate and coffee together over low heat in a bain-marie setup using a double boiler or a large heatproof bowl/pan set over a saucepan of shallow water, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon until the chocolate is just melted. Immediately take off heat and stir again until smooth. Stir the melted chocolate into the butter mixture, followed by the almond extract.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to soft peaks at medium-high speed. Then gradually sprinkle on 1 Tbsp sugar to help stabilize the whites, and beat at high speed to stiff peaks.
- With a rubber spatula, alternate folding into the mixture a third of the whipped egg whites at a time with the almond flour and flour until all is added. Pour into the prepared cake tin and smooth the batter out evenly.
Bake
- Bake for around 18 to 23 minutes, or until puffed, yet still looks undercooked in the center. I find a good rule of thumb is to take it out of the oven when (looking closely) only 1 inch (2.5cm) of the border around the edge looks dry and set. A toothpick test comes out almost dry on the border and still oily in the center.Take care not to overcook it! You want to intentionally undercook the cake, as it will lose its moist creaminess if cooked all the way through.
- Cool for 10 minutes. Then slide a knife around the edges of the pan and invert the cake upside down onto a cake rack to cool for at least an hour before frosting. Or enjoy unfrosted (see notes). Serve at room temperature.
Notes
Flouring the Cake Pan
- If you don’t plan to frost the cake, keep the sides of the cake dark for serving by dusting with cocoa powder instead of flour. Either way, you don’t need to butter and flour the bottom of the pan when using parchment paper.
Melting Chocolate in Microwave
- Note: If you prefer to melt the chocolate in the microwave, whisk the sugar only with the egg yolks in step 3, and melt the butter together with the chocolate, followed by any liquid flavoring.
- To melt the chocolate in the microwave: roughly chop or break into small even-sized pieces and cook at 50% power for 1 minute, then take out and stir, repeating until almost completely melted. Then stir again and let continue to melt on the counter.
Decorating
- Without Frosting – Sprinkle a little powdered sugar or cocoa around the border.
- With Frosting – Frost with chocolate buttercream frosting, or easy chocolate ganache.
- With Chocolate Curls – Sprinkle over the frosting, either on top, around the sides, or over the entire cake. I often make quick curls using a vegetable peeler.
- With Sliced Almonds – You can lightly dry-roast sliced almonds in a skillet and place them at the bottom of the cake tin before pouring the batter in. Or you can sprinkle them on the frosting, either on top or just on the sides. One way to do this is by holding a long fat spatula topped with nuts in one hand and leaning the sides of the frosted cake, supported, down against the nuts with your other hand.
Serving & Storing
- Stores well, covered, at room temperature for up to 2 days, and in the refrigerator for up to a week. Let come to room temperature for serving.
- Freezes beautifully. I like to freeze it in individual portions. Cover tightly. Tip: If frosted, store in a container with high sides (2”, 5cm) so the cover doesn’t stick to the icing. Take out of the freezer at least 2½ hours before serving to let thaw on the counter. Or let thaw in the refrigerator overnight and take out of refrigerator at least 1 hour before serving.
