Saturday, February 28, 2009

Daring Bakers: Flourless Chocolate Cake


The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

I chose to use my own ice cream recipe for this challenge. Toasted Coconut Ice Cream. Yum!

I served this dessert to my dad and his girlfriend, Jean. I think they both liked it. My husband wasn't much of a fan as this is super chocolately and while he likes sweets he isn't a chocolate fan like I am. He did, however, love the ice cream.

I thought the cake was divine. Extra chocolatey and dense. I ate about a quarter of the entire cake for breakfast one day. Now that is Van Den Bossche style. After doing this I had a conversation with my sister about richness. I suppose that this cake is rich. I also suppose that I am missing that part of my palate. I don't sense richness. When people say, "Oh this is so rich." I say, "Give me more." My sister is the same.


Chocolate Valentino
Yield: 8 inch cake

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.

2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.

4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).

5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.

8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C. Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Toasted coconut ice cream sounds heavenly! Your cake looks great too.

Anonymous said...

Your cake looks yummy with the ice cream.