Daring Bakers: Chocolate Valentino and Fresh Raspberry Ice Cream

Yay, I finally got back to baking with the Daring Bakers! Even though I made the recipe on Valentine's Day- I am posting late...ooops! Helen Mae's 1st birthday party was on Saturday so I have been in overdrive getting everything ready. I'm so glad that morning sickness is now a distant memory (ok, not that distant....but it's over none the less!) and that I can finally handle the smell of, well, everything! The February 2009 challenge was hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. They chose a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan along with the decadent cake we were required to make ice cream of any flavor. I have eaten flourless chocolate cake before, but I've never actually made one myself so I was excited about this challenge. Immediately I knew that I wanted to make a fresh raspberry ice cream to go with the cake- not only are raspberries and chocolate a wonderful combination- it was also the perfect way to Valentine's Day-up the dessert enough to serve it to my sweetheart on Feb. 14h!

The biggest challenge for me came with choosing the right chocolate for the cake. We were given complete freedom about what brand and type (milk, semi-sweet, bittersweet, etc.) of chocolate we wanted to use but we were also warned that the cake would taste exactly like the chocolate we picked. So I decided to do a little taste test with some good quality chocolates:


I picked up these bars of chocolate and decided to do a blind taste test- well the milk chocolates were decidedly too sweet and creamy for the cake and the bittersweet chocolate, though deliciously rich, was not quite sweet enough (the cake has no added sugar in it)- but the semi-sweet darker chocolates were just right. I narrowed it down to the World Market brand and this really wonderful bar of Bolivian chocolate-which ultimately won out. The chocolate was expensive but it was a fair trade product and I really want to try to support fair trade whenever I can.

The cake was so easy to throw together! I was a little worried about folding in the egg whites because I knew that if I deflated the batter the cake would not turn out- but everything worked out great! We were warned that the cake would fall quite as it cooled- and mine did, but it also held it's shape. The cake's texture was very dense, almost like fudge. I saved the remainder of mine for 3 days in the refrigerator and it became even denser but not dried out. I loved the deep flavor that the dark chocolate imparted but my sister wants me to try it again with a sweeter chocolate next time which I'm definitely going to try out- I actually would love to try it with an even more bitter chocolate too!


For the ice cream I used an extremely easy vanilla ice cream recipe and simply added 2/3 cup fresh raspberry puree (I strained out the seeds). The ice cream was delicious- it was not that overly sweet fake raspberry flavor that most of us think of, instead it was earthy and light.


Everyone enjoyed the cake and ice cream- but I think Helen Mae might have been the biggest fan! Here she is sharing with her Pop Pop:


Chocolate Valentino Cake Recipe, adapted from Chef Wan.

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

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.
While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line 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 in a medium/large grease free bowl 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 follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
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.
Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Raspberry Ice Cream
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup raspberry puree with seeds strained out

mix first four ingredients and pour into ice cream maker. Allow the mixture to churn for 15 minutes then add the raspberry puree. Churn for 10 more minutes. Remove ice cream and eat immediately if you like it soft or put in an air tight container and allow ice cream to set in the freezer (about 2 hours).

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.

TWD: Devil's Food White Out Cake

Ok let me just say that I was deliriously excited when i saw that Stephanie of Confessions of a City Eater picked the cake featured on the cover of Baking From My Home to Yours for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe! And now allow me to say that I was sadly disappointed at the outcome of my cake. It was NOT a bad cake- let me just say that- but I can't honestly say that I thought it was a good cake either.

The cake itself was pretty flat and a little dense for my taste- not exactly what I envision when I think of Devil's Food. Even though the recipe tells you to split both cakes in half so that there are four layers (one is crumbled for the decoration on the exterior of the cake)- I got too nervous about splitting them because they were so flat to begin with. I ended up making it a two layer cake and simply used the crumbs from the domes of the two cakes. The one very delicious aspect of the cake was the bits of chopped chocolate that become solid once the cake cools- a wonderful little treat in the dense crumb. The flavor of the cake was actually pretty good too. It was deeply chocolaty.

Now, the icing. I don't really know what to say about this icing because I think I had such a different idea about how it would turn out that I convinced myself that I did it wrong. Dorie describes it as a fluffy, marshmallow like consistency- and I feel like mine tasted a little too much like whipped egg whites with sugar. It just seemed wrong- and perhaps I am totally niave about this meringue-style icing but I really didn't like it. I actually made it twice because I worried that I hadn't let my sugar syrup get all the way to 242 F- but the second batch turned out nearly identical to the first.

I will say this: the cake looked beautiful once assembled (unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the inside of the cake- so I'll leave you with some pictures of Helen Mae dressed for our summery New Orleans style winter weather). I would consider making a version of this cake again but I will not make the icing again- it ended up being so frothy and I really am more of a sugary, dense, buttercream type of a girl- it would actually be pretty delicious with a thick whipped cream too!

Hello Sunflowers!

Sorry- no Tuesdays with Dorie post today- but definitely check out the blogroll to see the Floating Islands that the rest of the TWD bakers made! Instead, I finally broke out Hello Cupcake! by Alan Richardson and Karen Tack and made these adorable sunflower cupcakes. My mom gave me this great book for Christmas and I have probably looked at the pictures cover to cover about 10 times- the ideas are just too cute! The centers are mini oreos and regular sized oreos and the rest is just colored buttercream.


I decided to go with the recipes in the book for Perfect Cake-Mix Cupcakes and Almost-Homemade Vanilla Buttercream. I'm not usually a big fan of semi-homemade type recipes, but the cupcakes turned out great (the additions to the box mix really make a difference). The buttercream was good too- but I ended up adding a lot of extra powdered sugar to get it to the right consistency. The buttercream was very easy to work with- it spread really nicely and it was not too difficult to pipe either. I've been pouring over the book trying to decide if I want to do one of the cute designs for Helen Mae's upcoming 1st birthday!


Perfect Cake-Mix Cupcakes

1box (18.25 oz) cake mix (French Vanilla, devil's food, or yellow)
1 cup buttermilk (in place of the water called for on teh box)
Vegetable Oil (in the amount called for on the box)
4 large eggs (in place of the number called for on the box)

Follow box instructions, putting all of the ingredients in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until moistened, about 30 seconds. Increase the speed to high and beat until thick, 2 minutes longer. Fill 24 standard paper-lined muffin cups and bake at 350 F for 15-20 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the baking tins, place on a wire rack, and allow to cool completely.


Almost-Homemade Vanilla Buttercream

1 container (16oz) marshmallow fluff
3 sticks of unsalted butter, softened and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar, plus additional sugar if necessary (like I said before, I used WAY more!)

Spoon the marshmallow fluff into a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low. Gradually add the butter pieces, beating well after each addition, until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and the confectioners' sugar. Scrape the bowl well to incorperate.

TWD: World Peace Cookies

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Jessica of Cookbookhabit (you can find the recipe for World Peace Cookies on her blog and in Dorie Greenspan's wonderful book, Baking From My Home to Yours). Dorie praises these cookies as some of the best ever- she ranks the recipe to the Toll House Chocolate Chip recipe in importance. So of course I was a little skeptical. I mean Chocolate Chip Cookies are pretty darn important in the world of baked goods. Well, I have to hand it to her- these are really, really exceptional cookies. They are so chocolatey- containing both cocoa and chocolate pieces- and the consistency is truly wonderful. They are similar in some ways to a shortbread or a sandy but they are just a bit chewier and the chunks of chocolate break the texture up wondefully!


Like most of the TWD bakers, I was surprised at the crumbly nature of the dough- but with the use of waxed paper the logs came together easily. I chilled my logs for about eight hours and when I took them out I found them easy to slice. Oh and just as a side note- the dough on it's own is fabulous!! And no eggs- so no need to worry about salmonella so taste away!


The cookies spread more than I thought they would- but I kind of like the little rustic rounds. Anyway, I'm definitely going to be adding this recipe to my Christmas cookie repetoire- they are easy to make, delicious, and really quite different from most chocolate cookies that I've tried!