DARING BAKERS: CHOCOLATE VALENTINO CAKE

Here’s the skinny - The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
They 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.

Ahhhhh, the daring bakers do it again! Flourless Chocolate Valentino cake = heaven. I really don't think anything beats a chocolate cake; and flourless? Dream come true. The less flour, the more chocolate. Bring. It. On.

Butter, chocolate and eggs is all this beauty requires. The egg yolks, butter and chocolate are blended together while the egg whites are separately folded in to give the cake some poof. As part of this challenge the participants were allowed to use any combination of chocolates. The recipe calls for 1lb of chocolate in total and I went with 25% semi sweet, 50% white, and %25 bittersweet. The taste was a perfect blend of the 3 variations. We were also instructed to pair this cake with an ice cream of our choice. Considering I baked this in the dead of winter while it was snowing and 20 degrees out I just couldn't bring myself to make ice cream. Instead I topped the cake (which I turned into cupcakes) with a mint buttercream, chocolate flakes, and a thin mint cookie. Delish.

Check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll here!

Chocolate Valentino Cake

Prep: 20 minutes, Total: 45 minutes

equipment: 9 inch tart pan, or 8 inch springform

1 pound combination of semisweet and bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
5 large eggs, separated

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 and 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.

8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C, or 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.

Mint Buttercream Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/4 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon all natural peppermint extract
2 drops of green food coloring
1. beat butter until creamy, scrape bowl.
2. add 4 cups of sifted powdered sugar, milk, and peppermint extract, beat until combined.
3. add more powdered sugar as needed to get piping consistency. Add food coloring.