Saturday, March 15, 2014

Flourless Chocolate Cake on St. Paddy's Day

I was taught in culinary school different ways to use a flourless chocolate
cake.  A flourless chocolate cake is just that - flourless.
Instead of using flour, egg whites are whipped and added to the
chocolate batter instead of dry flour ingredients like we are
more familiar with. After taking out of the oven, the cake
will deflate leaving a moist spongy-like cake.
I like to "stamp" different-shaped pieces out of the flourless chocolate
cake, depending on what I am wanting to make and use them for.
I recently made this cake and "stamped" out hearts as a garnish for a
dessert I made for my sorority.  You can see that post here.
The top-right photo above shows those hearts which I also added a
drizzle of chocolate to, to dress them up and add to their flavor,
since the dessert they were garnishing was not chocolate.
 
I had some of the cake not used when making the hearts and placed
that remaining cake into the freezer. I pulled it out of the freezer
and decided to use it for this small tiered St. Paddy's Day cake. Well,
actually, I had the thought to pull the cake out of the freezer because...
the other day I had lunch with a friend at Opera Cafe and Patisserie
and had to bring home a few mini-macarons - in GREEN!
I thought to use a little macaron to top this little tiered cake.
Then eat the rest! Ha!
I pulled the cake out of the freezer, pulled out my circle cutters,
and while the cake was still quite cold, cut out the needed circles.  
I used the 2 1/2" - 58 mm cutter. 
I cut out more than I needed because the cake can get
quite moist and a little sticky as it thaws, making it sometimes
difficult to take out of the cutters in one piece.
I also had some buttercream in my freezer which I took
out one day before to bring back to room temperature,
then re-whipped it, and added the color green.
This was actually quite easy to put together. Nothing fancy here.
Piped a dab of buttercream on the plate to anchor the cake,
placed the first cake layer on top (using my offset spatula),
piped a swirl of buttercream,
 placed the second cake layer on top,
piped another swirl of buttercream, and
placed the final third layer of cake on top.
 
Althought I was planning on topping it with a final swirl of
buttercream and the green mini-macaron, I thought
it looked a bit plain and need more chocolate. (Right?)
I decided to drape it with some ganache.
For the ganache,
I placed semi-sweet baking chocolate into a bowl along with some cream.
I microwaved it for 45 seconds, then stirred until it became smooth,
shiny, and the pouring consistency I wanted.  Sorry, but I didn't measure.
I did end up adding a little more cream for a better pouring consistency.
But, no, I never put it back into the microwave.
I then lightly poured the ganache over the little tiered cake
and left it to drip down its sides. 
 Lastly, I added one last swirl of buttercream
then topped it off with the mini-macaron.
Yum!  I just love cake and I just love buttercream.
And, the macarons are just a very special treat.
 
Here is the recipe:
 
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Source - Southerner At Heart
 
10 oz. semi-sweet chocolate (not chips)
10 oz. butter
10 large egg yolks
3 oz. sugar
8 large egg whites
3 oz. sugar
 
Melt chocolate and butter together. Whisk egg yolks and 3 oz. sugar in a separate bowl. Fold in melted chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Whip egg whites and 3 oz. sugar to medium peaks. Fold chocolate mixture into egg white mixture. Spread into a half-sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake 350 degrees until center is set. Let cool completely in pan.
 
Enjoy!
 
Thank you for visiting my blog!
 
This week I will be joining
Rattlebridge Farm's Foodie Friday
 
 
Fondly,
~Karen

 
 
 
 


1 comment:

  1. This looks delicious--your step-by-step is a keeper. Thanks for adding your recipe to Foodie Friday! Happy St. Pat's Day.

    ReplyDelete

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