Saturday, February 28, 2009

Daring Bakers February Challenge!

So I almost forgot to post!

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 used 60% dark chocolate, which yielded a very rich, bittersweet cake. In lack of need of a cake, and because I love them, I decided to make cupcakes. I was going to just make little cakes in the cupcake pan like I saw that many people did, but my pans are kind of beaten up and I wasn't sure how great my success would have been to get them out. I topped them with shaved white chocolate and smooshed it around when it melted.

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I wouldn't say that I had overwhelming success with the cake. It was good, but I think I either over-beat the eggs, or let the chocolate get too stiff or something, because the texture was just a little off.

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We enjoyed it though.

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Here is the recipe for the cake.


Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
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. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. 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.

I, sadly, didn't have a chance to make ice cream, but think I still might.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Glad that even though it didn't turn out exactly how you wanted it you still enjoyed the cake...that's what's important, right!? I love the idea of adding a bit of white chocolate to sweeten it a bit.

Kittynn said...

Haha, I love the last picture :)
Your muffins look great. Why do you think the texture was "a little off"?

Lisa said...

I think it looks great, and as long as you enjoyed it, that's all that matters :) Nicely done!

Anonymous said...

Cupcakes were a great idea!

stephanie said...

Aw, I miss SJ :)And you of course. SO excited that you're coming to visit!!!!!!! (see all those exclamation points?)

Also sometimes the words in the verification part seem dirty.

natalie said...

It's hard to go wrong with chocolate! What a great idea to put white chocolate on top!