My sigh of relief is echoing the halls of my apartment. A near full-time internship and full time work has left me with about 6 hours of sleep at night and no "me" time. Oh well, this isn't about me bitching, is it?
Probably.
Anyway, in my madness of a life, I managed to make molten chocolate cakes. I have been meaning to make these for a long time since I found a recipe here. I will admit that I typically find recipes from other places, but the point of this blog isn't to give you just full on recipes. Anyone can find those. I want to give you my fat amateur experiences so that you can learn or make fun of me or whatever it is you do.
I had gotten four small ramekins that hold about 3/4 - 1 cup apiece. I thought they were super cute and perfect for what I was going to do. So, I made the batter according to the recipe. If you don't have an electric mixer then you are going to have sore arms, I had tried hand-whipping the egg whites. This recipe contains no flour, by the way. Butter, eggs, cream of tartar, chocolate, and VANILLA. I totally forgot the vanilla in the recipe, and I was pumped since I had just gotten a really good authentic vanilla.
To prep the ramekins I buttered and sugared liberally, but it could have been heavier. The recipe says go heavy, so make sure you do. This is not a recipe for those watching their diets... butter and eggs comprise most of the recipe, not to mention more than a couple ounces of semi-sweet chocolate per serving. It is important not to open the oven often, either, or it will fall. So, after following directions (except for the damn vanilla), I put them on a baking tray and baked two away. I saved the other two in some plastic in the fridge.
Baking didn't take long, the directions said about 15 minutes and that's what I did. In the mean time I whipped some cream and powdered sugar (homemade whipped cream FTW). I prefer freshly whipped cream for toppings, as it has that real cream taste, and it's as fresh as you are able to make. I had also purchased chocolate sauce (I had some that was homemade but it had crystallized since I had not cooked it long enough). I cut up some blackberries and strawberries (a technique that I had seen done at Tony's Trattoria in Waterloo, IA). When the cakes were done I did the whole upside-down-plate-trick to get them upside down on the plate. Run a knife on the outside of the cake before doing so. After a little coaxing they slid out on the plates.
I had gotten some 1/2 fat Breyer's Vanilla Bean for the dessert. I did this since the cake was heavy and hot, the ice cream is cool and lighter, and the whipped cream is like air in comparison, and a bit less sweet than the rest. The berries brought a tartness that broke up the sweet bombardment. I had it all plated, and did a drizzle of chocolate sauce for effect on each. The end result was pretty sweet, and it tasted pretty excellent. It is like a pudding in the center, which is a bit strange but still very good. The cake wasn't extremely rich like I had expected, but the fat and sugar elements were very strong as were the chocolate notes. The ice cream contrasted the cake a good amount, and the berries gave the whole thing a break when needed.
But, enough talking about it, here are pictures
and also
Nevermind my dirty stove. The sauce was used a little too heavy, but I blame Hershey for their generously-endowed container openings. I liked the berries fanning them a bit, but how you do it is up to you.
Questions or comments? Let us know!!
