DB February 2009: Chocolate Valentino Cake

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.

I apologise for being late to post the February 2009 challenge. I baked the cake earlier and had my post on "Save". Unfortunately, I had a very busy schedule the past 3 days. I was not able to complete it and post on Feb 28th. My better half came to visit and we had been so busy attending the 2-day Pre-Marriage course and stuff, I was unable to post it on the date that I was suppose to..... :(

I love this Chocolate Valentino Cake and so does my better half. I also love Chef Wan. Excellent chef and quite funny in his cooking shows.. I was really excited to know that Wendy and Dharm have chosen his recipe.... :)

Anyway, I baked the cake a few hours before he arrived here. Its his belated Valentine's surprise. I had to admit that the way I baked this cake was terribly wrong. It took more than 25mins. LOL... I think about more than an hour.. I was confused. I had the temperature to the lowest setting. The cake was still wet... so I raised the temperature a little higher and this cake still didnt baked... So finally I raised it to 150c.. It looked as if it was baked, because the top part looked dry. I tested it using a toothpick, the middle was wet. I baked it once more... I think when you bake cakes, you must not open the oven door, or the cake will sink in the middle. Which is exactly what mine did. The top part cracked and the cake sunk! LOL... Although with all these mistakes I did, you wont believe it, the cake still taste really really good! So instead of using the whole heart-shaped cake, I used a smaller heart-shaped cookie cutter to make it looked more presentable....

Chocolate Valentino Cake
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

Method:
1. 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.
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. {link of folding demonstration}
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.

Links to helpful tips:
Folding video demonstration.
Egg Whipping video demonstration.



For the ice-cream, I used David Leboitz's Vanilla Ice Cream recipe. It was very sweet but I still like it. Since I do not have a ice-cream maker, I had to do it manually and it takes about three and half hours to complete.
Here is the link to making ice cream without a machine.

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
A pinch of salt
3/4 cups sugar
1 vanilla bean
5 egg yolks
2 cup heavy cream
A few drops of vanilla extract

Method:
1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the milk with the tip of a paring knife. Add the bean pod to the milk.
2. Stir together the egg yolks in a bowl and gradually add some of the warmed milk, stirring constantly as you pour. Pour the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.
3. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula. Strain the custard into the heavy cream. Rinse the vanilla bean and put it back into the custard and cream to continue steeping. Chill thoroughly, then remove the vanilla bean and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.

Thanks Wendy and Dharm for the excellent challenge...