A visit down to our outpost in Washington DC had been long overdue, and one of the perceived holes that needed to filled on the menu was a chocolate cake. It didn't matter exactly what form it took, all I knew that chocolate cake would be at the top of my agenda.
In thinking of various options, from a simple layer cake (boring) to the old warm chocolate cake (kinda cool now in a retro way, but still tired) and beyond, I remembered always wanting to play around with black cocoa. And in the realm of cake bases, fewer are more simple, better tasting, or cocoa-centric than a flourless method. That was where I'd begin.
But the more I researched black cocoa, it became apparent that it wasn't this dark and secret special ingredient I had been missing all these years. Rather, it's just treated with more alkaline to produce a darker color (think Oreo black), which doesn't ultimately add much in the flavor department, just a harsher bitterness.
After trying a couple of different proportions, I quickly realized that, in the end, the cake was just fine, if not better, with our conventional cocoa. I'm sure there are, however, appropriate applications for black. And the cake that eventually emerged happily exceeded expectation; it was refined enough to put our name on it, while not being too fussy for a casual bistro menu.
Download: Flourless Chocolate Cake- Workbook 26.3.09
I love the simple charm of it. The shots of the presentation are lovely too, though can't quite make out what you've done. How do you present it?
Posted by: Stephen | April 14, 2009 at 12:41 PM
I used to do 2/3rd's Black cocoa to 1/3 brut cocoa.
Posted by: Ted Niceley | April 14, 2009 at 09:12 PM
Nice...what are the other components of this dish? I also wanted to say the blog is a great source of inspiration and a good springboard for ideas and musings.
Posted by: Franck | April 17, 2009 at 11:22 PM