Friday, July 12, 2013

the ultimate one-bowl chocolate cake

Once in a while, you get invited to a dinner party or bbq party, or some form of party. And you want to bring a cake. Not a store-bought one - anyone can do that. A home-made cake.


But not any old cake. Something that is not only delicious, but also shouts PROFESSIONAL. Something people are going to remember when they think of you in the weeks after the party.

Having said all that, you have very little time to spare, and you do not have all the hi-tech baking equipment needed to make some complicated cake.

What do you do?

Make this cake, of course!


You do not need any special equipment - only a heat-proof bowl and a hand whisk.

But what you would end up with is a cake so dense, so chocolatey, so rich, it is completely memorable.

To make such a cake, you do need the best chocolate you can get your hands on.


Here, I used 70% Valrhona dark chocolate.

In a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water, I melted the chocolate and butter, stirring once in a while.

In the mean time, I measured the sugar, flour and almond meal into a bowl and used a whisk to combine them.

Once the chocolate and butter had melted, I added the sugar-almond meal-flour mixture in 3 parts, whisking after each addition to combine.




The milk was also added, and whisked into the mixture. The resulting mixture will be thick and look grainy.



I added the eggs, one at a time, and whisked after each addition. The batter will get heavier with each addition.



The batter was placed in a greased and lined baking tin, and a sheet of aluminium foil was placed on top. It was then baked for an hour, or until the inside is set and no longer wobbly.


What came out of the oven after an hour is a dense, dense cake. When the cake was cool, I sifted some cocoa powder on top.



I served the cake with cream whipped with a little icing sugar and chocolate syrup.


It is impossible to eat a lot of this cake in one sitting.


But you will want to. :)

RECIPE
The Ultimate One-Bowl Chocolate Cake (Serves 8-10)
Adapted from Donna Hay

Ingredients:
125g butter, chopped
375g dark chocolate (best quality), chopped
175g brown sugar
1/4 cup plain (all purpose) flour
2 tablespoons milk
120g almond meal
5 eggs
1 tablespoon cocoa, for dusting

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2. Line and grease a 21cm or 22cm round baking tin with baking paper.
3. Place the butter and chocolate in a large bowl over a pot of simmering water ensuring that the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.
4. Once melted, add the sugar, flour, milk and almond meal and mix to combine.
5. Add eggs one at a time and mix well.
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin and cover with a sheet of foil.
7. Bake for 60 minutes or until the inside is set and not wobbling.
8. Remove the foil and cool in the tin and.
9. Dust with cocoa and serve with cream.




We are the DinoFamily

12 comments:

  1. Oh, my legs went all wobbly by just looking at the picture. Gimme more chocky cake!!! I think I've gone mad!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Agy, haha, don't go mad. Make the cake and savour the chocolate bite by bite!! :)

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  2. I.want.to.try.this! Do you know my husband claimed the whole portion of cake you gave me today? Die lah. I don't have that standard.

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  3. woah! I should have given you the rest of that cake too!!! you can one. it is easy. really!!

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  4. Hi Katherine, thanks for leaving a comment! It was really yummy - maybe one day you can have a go at making this too :)

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  5. What if I don't have almond meal? Can I just leave it out?

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    Replies
    1. No no you can't leave out the almond meal - it replaces the flour so you will need it otherwise the cake will fail.

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