Vanill bean flourless chocolate cake

* Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt butter and chocolate at 30 second intervals. Meaning, to stir every 30 seconds so you don't burn the chocolate. In a seperate bowl, scrape the vanilla bean and mix together 1/2 cup of the sugar with the four egg yolks ; add yolk mixture to chocolate and stir well.

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, then slowly add the remainder of the sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form. *Make sure your egg whites are at room temperature, you should have no problems resulting in stiff peaks. Fold chocolate mixture in and pour into a 9 inch round cake pan or into individual souffle ramekins.

Bake 40 minutes , or until a toothpick comes out clean when stuck into the middle of the cake. Cool completely before serving. Great served with strawberries, raspberries, cool whip, ice cream or just a dashing of powdered sugar.