When I think of a chocolate cake, I think of a chocolate fondant cake. I think of a soft centred chocolate cake that is creamy, soft enough to be able to pick up with a fork yet melts in my warm mouth like fudge. Did I mention that it must be in dark chocolate? I’ve never been a fan of milk chocolate. I love my chocolate dark, fruity and with lots of flavour. Then there is that added bonus, eating dark chocolate is said to release Phenylethylamine and Serotonin. These are the same chemicals which induce the feelings of love.
Ken’s Café Gâteau au Chocolat in Tokyo is famous for their decadent chocolate cakes with a one month or more waiting list. They are made with all the best ingredients; Domori 70% dark chocolate, ‘Mukashinoaji’ eggs straight from the farm and the best Japanese butter. Their chocolate cake can be eaten 3 ways, warm like a chocolate fondant, room temperature (my favourite way) which is in between a chocolate cake and a fudge or cold which has the texture of nama chocolate. Decoding the ingredients was not hard upon reading up a lot of the interviews done but it was the technique that was tricky. Trying to figure out a fool proof way of making it so that every single time you will get the same outcome without having to explain too much of the technical details was the real challenge.
Anyone that has worked with chocolate can empathize with the frustration that comes with newbies working with chocolate. Chocolate is so finicky. It burns, it splits/seizes, it is temperature sensitive, it hates water (will not tolerate even an iota of it). I had to learn the hard way as well. I have thrown out so much chocolate over the last decade, got very angry with myself, and this was despite doing a lot of reading and watching youtube videos. Dark chocolate is actually the hardest to work with and the most prone to problems but I have figured out an easy way for you to make this cake. The most important equipment you will need is a stick blender (immersion blender).
Note: Invest in a good single origin dark chocolate for this recipe because it will pay off. I love my Tanzanian chocolate because of their fruity and floral notes.
You may make this cake on the day itself but give it plenty of time for it to cool down to room temperature if you are not eating it warm.
Makes a loaf 9″X4″X3″
Ingredients
400g 75% chocolate (any couverture chocolate 72% and above, I use Cacao Barry’s 75% Tanzanie)
340g unsalted butter (cold and cubed)
360g eggs (after straining it through a sieve, so crack approximately 415g of eggs without shells, 8 eggs)
120g fine caster sugar
Method:
Warm your oven to 180degC Fan Forced with the rack placed at around the 3/4 point from the top or one down from your mid point.
Line your loaf tin with two strips of baking paper going from north to south and east to west, just overlapping at the base.
In a big metal mixing bowl, add in the chocolate and cubed butter (items in purple). Put that over a pan of simmering water (bain marie), do not let the hot water touch the base of the mixing bowl. Leave it to warm up while you measure out the eggs.
Break the eggs into a bowl, beat that up using a fork.
Put an empty bowl over the weighing scale, tare your scale (zero your scale)
Put your sieve over it (do not tare/zero it) and pour in your beaten eggs and after everything that can go through has, remove the sieve and make sure that there is 360g of eggs in the bowl.
Stir your melted chocolate till everything comes together like this.
Keep your fire at a low like this.
Pour into the melted chocolate mixture, the sugar in parts and stirring to incorporate them.
Add in the eggs in parts to the mixture and mix them together with a spatula or whisk.
It will turn lumpy/split due to the drop in the temperature of the chocolate and it’s ok.
Take out your immersion/stick blender and keep going at it. Try to keep the head of the blender always under the surface so that you do not introduce in air bubbles.
Soon you will see the chocolate come back together and create this super smooth chocolate mixture.
Pour it all in a tin. Give it a good shake left and right to even it out. If you want to, you can take out your spatula and even the surface out.
Put it on a tray and into the oven. Bake for 11mins (how to make sure if is done, visually, you can see a crust starting to form and the sides are starting to come away from the paper). Remove it from the oven and let it cool down.
You will see the middle start to collapse and the sides shrink more. That’s normal.
If you want to eat it warm, let it cool for 7mins, then using the paper to hammock it out of the tin onto a plate. You can make smaller versions of this for individual eating portions.
Let it cool and come to room temperature if you are eating normally.
To eat it cold, put it in the fridge and use a warm knife to slice it clean.
Dreaming in Flavours 