Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino

First, Happy Birthday to my baby sister today!   If she lived closer to me, I would’ve made and presented this challenge to her for her special day.   Happy Birthday, Sis!!
February 2009 Daring Baker’s Challenge was a Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino.   How befitting for the month of Valentine’s Day!   My bad, didn’t actually make it on Valentine’s day though! Mmm. This cake was very rich and dacedent.    While it was baking it smelled so good.   Had a  lot of fun with this one and so much room for creativity.    The amazing thing about this cake is that it only had three ingredients:

• Chocolate (our choice of semisweet, bittersweet or milk chocolate)
• Butter (but of course!)
• Eggs

As an extra part of the fun, the Daring Bakers were to make their own Ice Cream or whipped cream.   I opted to make my own whipped cream.

I used semisweet chocolate and baked in an 8-inch round pan.  After cooling and unmolding the cake, I used biscuit and heart-shaped cutters.    Presentation:  Dusted with powdered sugar and arranged on some strawberry glaze.  Topped with homemade whipped cream and a fresh halved strawberry.

Thank you Daring Bakers for a fun challenge and to our hosts this month, Wendy and Dharm (credits below).

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Chocolate Valentino

Preparation Time:  20 minutes

Ingredients

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

Directions

1. Place 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/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.

Teenie Cakes Whipped Cream
1 cup of heavy whipped cream (chilled)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons sugar

Whip until fluffly and peaks are firm.

TeenieCakes.com

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.