This is one rich and chocolatety cake. Not only does this recipe not call for flour, it doesn’t call for sugar. The only three ingredients are semisweet chocolate, eggs and butter. Honestly, this wasn’t really my kind of cake. The texture and the extreme chocolateyness were a bit much for my tastes. However, other chocolate cake lovers enjoyed it just fine. My sister-in-law doesn’t think that a ‘too chocolatey’ cake exists. I made a pomegranate ice cream to balance the heaviness of the cake with some fruitiness. I also made some tuiles for decoration. Yes, I am the kind of dork who pipes her husband’s name in chocolate. It’s okay, you can judge me. 
I enjoyed making this an over the top Valentine’s day themed dessert.
Although I thought the tuiles would be purely decorative, they were actually really delicious and stayed very crisp. I made savory tuiles last month that didn’t hold up as well. I asked J’s cousin, who happened to be over while I was making this, to draw me something interesting. He chose to draw a Spring/Easter inspired dove. Thanks Chris! I really like how they came out; although, it may look a little like there is a dead bird in my ice cream… Overall, the crisp tuiles, fruity ice cream and rich cake went quite well together.
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.
Thanks to both of you for hosting this month’s challenge! Check out the other Daring Bakers’ confections on the Blogroll.
Chocolate Valentino by Chef Wan
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
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
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.
The recipe for Nigella Lawson’s No-Churn Pomegranate Ice Cream can be found here.
Tuile Recipe from “The Chocolate Book”, written by female Dutch Master chef Angélique Schmeinck.
Yields: 20 small butterflies/6 large (butterflies are just an example)
Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch
65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams / 1/2 cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour
1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet
Oven: 180C / 350F
Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the bakingsheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.
Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from bakingsheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a bakingsheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.
If you don’t want to do stencil shapes, you might want to transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip. Pipe the desired shapes and bake. Shape immediately after baking using for instance a rolling pin, a broom handle, cups, cones….
Great job on the Valentino, and I love the contrast of the pomegranate ice crem along side the cake. Also love that you added tuiles, beautiful and precious ones at that
I love that you tried last months challenge again, youre a true DB. Your pom ice cream looks yuuuum. PS It wasnt my taste either…
pomegranate ice crem sounds great, I might have to give that a try! Great work, the cake looks wonderful!
Beautiful presentation! That ice cream looks incredibly delicious! Very well done!
Cheers,
Rosa
You have a special way of photographing food so it makes the reader want to reach through the computer! Well done!!
Superbes présentations ! c’est du beau travail
Love the tuile decorations from the previous challenge. Makes for a lovely presentation.
pomegranate ice cream… yum!
What a great idea – there is never enough chocolate really – this the best chocolate cake ever. Love the Pomegranate I was thinking of this but decided on something else. Great photos and effort on this challenge.
Your tuiles are beautiful. If I had any piping skill I’d be piping my husband’s name too. I’ve got a bunch of pomegranate juice so I want to try pomegranate ice cream
Mmm, your cake looks beautiful, and I love the idea of pomegranate ice cream =D!!
Wonderful Valentine dessert! Pomegranate ice cream sounds absolutely delectable with the chocolate valentino…
Nice work bringing together two DB challenges! It looks as if your bird is about to take flight…
Gorgeous presentation, wow!
Cheers,
Elra
Ooh, pomegranate ice cream! I love pomegranate. I definitely agree that the cake was a little much for non-chocoholics, but definitely delicious anyway! I also love that you incorporated the tuiles.
I think piping your husband’s name is cool! Beautiful presentation.
I’m sorry you don’t like chocolate so much. Anyway your cake and ice cream looks amazing.
That is one great looking chocolate cake!
ohh, sorry you didnt enjoy the flavor. But you still did a beautiful job!!
nice idea using pomegranate ice cream, i bet it taste delicious!
Great use of colors and different shapes- This presentation is very pleasing to the eye! Way to work those tuiles.
This all looks so yummy – great job on the challenge!
So beautiful and elegant! Pomegranate ice cream is an awesome idea!
The cake and the pomegranate ice cream together sound wonderful! Your tuiles are very cute.
Ha, shout out to last month’s challenge. Looks great – I would never have thought to pair pomegranate with chocolate, but it sounds elegant.
Love that you decorated with tuiles, very pretty!
Lovely ice cream, should have been refreshing with the pomegranate.
Bravo! Your cake looks wonderful. I like the idea of pomegranate ice cream.
Great job on the challenge and I love that you brought the tuiles back from the last challenge. I love your flavor combos
Beautiful, Jillian!
I live the colors… so spring, so fresh, so daintylike!
…and how creative is pomegrate ice cream! WOW!
Bravo, for a very well accomplished challenge!
Beautiful pairing & plating too. How exotic the ice-cream too sounds, & well done with the tuiles! You did brilliantly on the challenge. WOW!!
Great work Jillian, surely you must get extra points for doing the tuiles again too!
Delicious sounding ice cream! I agree that extra credit is in order for repeating the tuiles.
Thanks everyone! I think I may be putting tuiles on everything for a while
Very nice dessert with professional photos to top it another tuiles to complete . Excellent
Great job on your challenge and love the pictures and presentation.
Very cute presentation!
Wow, great job. The ice cream sounds wonderful and a perfect pair with the chocolate. I’m super impressed on the revisiting of the former DB challenge. Well done.