Friday Roundup

I paid $40 for a flourless chocolate cake at Earth Fare, and thought “There must be a way to bake this at home.” There is, and now you can benefit from my mistakes.

But bakers, take note! You will need a DEEP 9” round cake pan, because this cake rises high. In a standard cake pan, it will keep rising and fall over the sides. Signed, the Voice of Sad Experience. (Here’s the deep pan I ordered on Amazon.)

I knew I wanted a black serving tray, because the damp mousse-like chocolate makes a white plate look messy. I got this metal “pizza tray” at Walmart for $1.00.

I ordered these cake stencils on Amazon. Use a shaker to dust them with powdered sugar. It looks impressive, but it’s so easy!

If possible, leave the 6 eggs out several hours (or the night before) so they reach room temperature. This is helpful (shortens beating time) but not absolutely necessary. You can try putting them in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes.

Heat oven to 325 degrees.

Place a circle of parchment on the bottom of the pan. Butter the sides only 1” from bottom. I had a problem with the cake sinking in the middle, and unbuttered sides give the cake something to hold on to.

Melt:

1 ½ stick butter

Break up and add:

12 oz chocolate (I use dark chocolate candy bars)

Stir into the butter-chocolate mixture:

1 ¼ c sugar

1 t salt

1 t vanilla

Let this cool off, so it doesn’t cook the eggs.

Now break into a large metal bowl (it will rise high):

6 eggs

Beat the eggs at high speed for 10 min or more, until there are very soft peaks. Keep beating till you reach the “ribbon stage”— when you hold up the beater, the beaten eggs flow down in a ribbon an inch or two wide. (If the eggs are cold, this takes 15-20 minutes.)

Pour the chocolate-butter mixture in a thin stream into the eggs very gently, lifting and folding, trying not to break the air bubbles. I’ve poured it gently back and forth from one bowl to the other. The difficulty is that the heavy chocolate sinks to the bottom, so it takes some diligence to get it fully incorporated, without breaking the egg bubbles too much.

Pour the batter into the pan, and bake 50 min. more or less. It is done when it has a thin dry crust on top; if you shake it lightly, it wobbles in the middle. (Slightly under-cooked might be better; it was lava-like at the center but the crust was nice and chewy. Everybody loved it, though I’d used only Hershey’s Dark Chocolate bars.)

Let the cake cool completely in the pan; as long as it is warm, the eggs are still setting.

Run a knife around the sides of the pan, and use it to lift the cake gently underneath. Put the serving dish on top of the cake pan, and flip it over carefully (you might keep a hand supporting the cake). Peel off the parchment and it’s ready to serve, or you can decorate with sprinkled powdered sugar, whipped cream, berries, etc. I like to use a stencil with powdered sugar.

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I was with my prayer partners on a retreat at Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Ellwood City, PA. On the microwave there was this button on the bottom right, and my friend absent-mindedly thought it read, “Memory Eternal.”

Girls tip their heads together when they are having their picture taken (or having their icon painted). It’s like they’re given a verbal cue, just before the button is clicked: Tip!

You can meet some interesting people in northeast (Appalachian) Tennessee. Walmart parking lot. Apologies for the off-color bits. She sounds dangerous!

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