daring bakers: mint chocolate valentino

it’s that daring bakers moment of the month again! the february 2009 challenge is hosted by wendy of wmpe's blog and dharm of dad ~ baker & chef who tell us that “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 was quite excited by this recipe – a flourless chocolate cake which we were able to flavour however we liked. i decided to go with mint for mine and used a 50:50 mix of dark mint chocolate and milk chocolate (dharm had warned us that the lack of sugar might make a cake made only with dark chocolate too bitter)

so, how did i get on?

the chocolate valentino recipe was very easy to make and equally easy (and quick!) to demolish! i do have to confess to using bought ice cream though – it’s been a hectic month.

as you’ll see from the picture i made some mini cakes. this was because i had extra mixture leftover. the minis refused to turn out despite me lining the tins (i used a loose-bottom tray for the large cake which was fine), so were a bit disastrous and i wouldn’t recommend using mini cake tins like this.

the final verdict:

would i have tried this recipe if it hadn't been part of the daring bakers challenge? yes, it’s just the sort of cake i like.

would i try this recipe again in the future? no. it was fine but nothing special so i’d continue to try new flourless cake recipes rather than stick to this one.

chef wan’s chocolate valentino

450 grams of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped

150 unsalted butter

5 large eggs, separated

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. remove from the heat when it is has all melted.

while your chocolate mixture is cooling, butter an 8” cake tin and line it with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls. whip the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).

with the same beater beat the egg yolks together. add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate. fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and then add the remaining 2/3rds. fold until no white remains but be careful not to deflate the batter.

pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full (i had extra!), and bake at 190c for 25 minutes ( or until an instant read thermometer reads 60c; 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). cool the cake, in its tin, on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.