The Marquise is a cake with a chocolate base, a layer of dulce de leche, another of whipped cream, and (as it wasn't enough) Italian meringue on top. It's very rich, a great dessert for people with a sweet tooth who love chocolate. I use Maru Botana's recipe, but I either do 1/4 or 3/8 of the quantities because it's a bomb otherwise.
It's also an easy-to-make but very nice-looking cake, so it makes for a great birthday present (this is my friend Martin's favorite cake, so he knows!). It can also easily be made gluten-free, which is a plus.
Here is Maru's recipe broken down to 3/8:
150 grams of butter
112 grams of dark chocolate
3/4 cups of sugar
3 eggs
3/4 tablespoon of all-purpose flour (or cornstarch if you're making it gluten-free!)
180 grams of dulce de leche
75 grams of heavy cream (Note: I sometimes skip the heavy cream layer, but because it doesn't take any sugar, I mostly keep it, your call)
For the Italian Meringue:
150 grams of sugar
75 grams of egg whites
150 grams of water
Melt the chocolate, butter, and sugar in a water bath. I know we all just want to use the microwave, but it's actually not that bad. Try to enjoy it!
Take it out of the heat, add the eggs, and mix by hand so it's all well incorporated. Add the flour/cornstarch and mix well.
Grease and flour a 9" pan, pour the mixture, and bake in a 350°F oven until the edges start to unstick from the pan.
Let it cool completely and take it out of the pan.
For the meringue, follow this Italian Meringue recipe.
Time to put the Marquise together: top the chocolate layer with the dulce de leche, a very fine layer of freshly whipped heavy cream (with no sugar unless you want to die), and finish it with the meringue.