… chocolate decadence, that is!
Our son's elementary school has a fundraiser tonight and I volunteered to donate two desserts for the dessert auction table. I made two of the same. First saw this recipe, one year ago, featured in our local newspaper. It is the easiest thing to make and the most delicious you can imagine. Recipe below as found on a news network site (!) – even they were promoting it a year ago!
Looks sort of blah, doesn't it? It's only about 1" high.
Once 150% cool (overnight) you can add a stencil (I cut out letters just by printing them on a piece of paper on my computer) and then sift powdered sugar all over then removed them with tweasers so I didn't tip them when lifting straight up and off. Here I used the school's initials but the first time I made it, I put a big star on it. If the cake is not cool when you do this, the sugar will melt. I know as that happened the first time I made this a year ago.
Note that it is very rich and very crumbly. When my family eats it, I tease that they have to take a Barbie-doll sized portion as that's as much as you can handle in one sitting.
Now to jazz it up for its presentation on the auction table. I went over to a dollar store last night for clear cellophane and some embellishments and ribbon. The platters are from Goodwill ($4 total). Oh, and rather than lay the cake on the fake leaves or the red ribbony stuff, I cut out 9" circles out of a priority mail box and slid the cake onto that then onto the decorative platter. Makes it more stabilized since the plates curve up and I also didn't want the cake to crack if it was not sitting flat. Voila! A red version and a silver version.
Now to drive them to school without them sliding anywhere!
Now, here's the recipe I found an ABC News' site (I just Googled it and this was the handiest source):
This dense, rich chocolate cake oozes holiday decadence, yet is fast
and easy enough for anyone to make. Pastry Chef Francois Payard borrows
the recipe from his brother, Charlie, a pastry instructor, for his
recent book, "Chocolate Epiphany."
Payard says the cakes can be wrapped in plastic and frozen for up to a
month. Serve with ice cream, creme fraiche, whipped cream or a dusting
of powdered sugar.
———
CHARLIE'S AFTERNOON CHOCOLATE CAKE
Start to finish: 35 minutes (15 minutes active)
Servings: 8 to 10
Baking spray (cooking spray blend of oil and flour)
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces 60 percent cacao chocolate, chopped – Stella's note = don't use any other percentage of cacao – I tried 63% once and it looked wrong. Ghirardelli makes the right 60% chips and every grocery store should have it in the baking section
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
Place a rack at the center of the oven. Heat the oven to 350 F. Use the
baking spray to coat the sides and bottom of a 9-inch round springform
pan.
In a small saucepan over medium-high, bring the butter to a boil,
stirring several times to prevent it from burning. Remove the pan from
the heat and add the chocolate, stirring until melted and smooth. Set
aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Add the flour and
mix well. Add the chocolate and butter mixture, then mix only until
just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.
Bake the cake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 300 F and bake for an
additional 8 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool
completely in the pan. Unmold and serve.
(Recipe from Francois Payard's "Chocolate Epiphany," Clarkson Potter, 2008)
