Well, I’m a day late and a dollar short, but here’s my best effort at this month’s challenge.  Wendy at wmplesblog and Dharm at Dad – Baker and Chef hosted this month’s challenge, the Chocolate Valentino from Chef Wan.  This was an unusually simple challenge with only three ingredients — eggs, butter, and chocolate.  It makes a dense, fudgy, brownie-like but crumbly, rich cake, and as we were warned, it tastes just like the chocolate you use to make it.  We were also supposed to make homemade ice cream to go with the cake, and I had it all planned out to make this almond cherry chocolate ice cream.  I had bought the ingredients and everything, but I ended up at work all day on Valentine’s Day, and I had time to make the cake but not the ice cream.  In the end, it was so rich on its own, I don’t think it suffered too much from not having ice cream to go with it, although I do still want to try that ice cream sometime.

I added a couple extra ingredients to my cake — flaky sea salt and Kahlua.  I thought the coffee flavoring would be tasty with the chocolate, although if I did it again I’d either add more or leave it out, as I couldn’t really taste it. However, I did think the salt really added to the flavor of the cake. (After discovering World Peace Cookies, I’m pretty much in love with the salty-sweet combination.)

Thanks to Wendy and Dharm for a delicious Valentine’s day treat!  Finally, here’s the fine print for the blog-checkers:

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.

Chocolate Valentino

Adapted from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan

16 oz (1 lb) semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
1/2 c (1 stick) plus 2 T unsalted butter
5 large eggs, separated
1 T Kahlua (optional)
Flaky salt, such as fleur de sel (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Melt butter and chocolate together in a double boiler over simmering water, stirring often. Remove from heat and allow to cool part of the way.

Line an 8″ pan with parchment and butter the pan and parchment.

Separate the eggs. Whip the whites until stiff peaks form, being careful not to overwhip, as that will make the cake dry. In a separate bowl (or in the same bowl with whites removed), beat the yolks. Mix the yolks an the cooled chocolate. Add kahlua. Gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites, followed by the remaining 2/3 of the egg whites, until no white remains in the batter.

Pour into prepared pan (should be about 2/3 full). Sprinkle with a little bit of flaky salt (optional) and bake at 375 F for 25 minutes.

Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before unmolding.

Note: my cake got a bunch of big cracks in it when I unmolded it. I don’t really know what to do to avoid this, but you couldn’t tell once it was sliced, and it was delicious anyway!

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