I feel absolutely honored, Kelsie. Thank you so much for the kind words 🙂

Welcome, Joe! Let’s get these questions answered so you can get baking. First, a good quality chocolate can be something as simple as the bars of Lindt you can find at your grocer. If you’re in thee USA even Ghirardelli works well. Often in the baking aisle you’ll find “baking chocolate” slabs, these work and same principal applies. You just want a bar that is made with real ingredients and doesn’t cost 99cents for a whole bar. Just make sure it’s semi-sweet!

The espresso powder can for sure be used, follow the instructions on the label to make a “cup” of espresso, and use 2 tablespoons of that in the recipe. Every brand is different, so I don’t want to tell you to add X amount of the powder + water, as I don’t know the strength of the product.

Lastly, I have never used the carton egg whites before, so I don’t want to mislead you into saying they will work for sure. But I will say this.. Since whites AND yolks are both used for this recipe (in different steps), I’d opt for using an actual whole egg for this cake.

Hope this helps and you’ll enjoy the recipe!

When you say “High Quality” chocolate, what do you mean. I’m familiar with grocery store chocolate, but do you have do have some brands in mind or qualities to look for in a high quality chocolate?

I have some Espresso powder from another recipe. Can I use that? If so, how?

Now for the stupid question. Can you use those egg whites in a carton or are the pasteurized and won’t fluff up properly?

Thank you for your website and help. Joe

Cakes are a very delicate subject in a convection oven and can really be hit or miss, Emily. If you’re going to give it a try, I would absolutely suggest lowering the temperature 25F or 15C and start checking the cake at least 5min earlier than you normally would. I’m not saying it won’t turn out well, but you have to be extra cautious. It’s amazing how powerful a simple fan can be when dealing with cakes/cookies. Best of luck!

Thank you so much, and congrats and delivering a delicious cake in your own kitchen (with nailing the eggs whites!). Practice makes perfect, so you just may have to eat that entire cake and get back in the kitchen to make another! 🙂

Thank you, Katie! What substitute did you have in mind? In my opinion – and to be honest, I haven’t tried it – since the amount of flour is so low, I would be willing to wager that a gluten free flour (your fave brand, or King Arthur is a great one) would work in this recipe. I can’t say with 100% certainty, but I think it should be of little issue. If you do happen to try it out with an alternative flour, I’d love to know the results!