Today being the 100th birthday of Julia Child, this cake is a tribute to her. For those who do not know who Julia Child is- She was an American chef, cook book author and a famous television personality who was known to bring french cuisine to the American Public through her cookbooks and television programs. I myself didn't know about Julia before entering the blogging world.
This week had been pretty hectic for me and I had to bake the cake at the last moment. Finally baked the cake yesterday. Whatever can go wrong went wrong. First the egg whites, as I was beating they turned watery, had to discard and start all over again. Then when the cake was baked, I had to let it cool away from kids hands, was carrying it, my son screamed and I almost dropped it, in the process of saving broke the cake to two. But anyways covered it with icing. Sliced some almonds to use them for decoration.
All in all, the effort for baking this cake was more than I usually put in, but learnt a lot baking this. Really glad that I baked this cake,as I have never tasted a cake this delicious in my life. The rich chocolate almond combo in this soft spongy cake made me fall in love with it.
What are the ingredients needed?
For the cake:
Semi sweet chocolates, 4 oz/ 4 squares
Rum/coffee, 2 Tbs
Unsalted Butter (room temperature), 1/2 cup/ 1 stick
Granulated Sugar, 2/3 cup + 1 Tbs
Eggs, 3 nos ( whites & Yolk separated)
Salt, a pinch
Lemon Juice, 1/4 tsp (optional)
Pulverized Almonds, 1/3 cup
Almond extract, 1/4 tsp
Cake flour, 1/2 cup
For the chocolate icing
Semi sweet chocolate, 2 oz
Rum/coffee- 2 Tbs
Unsalted butter (room temperature), 5-6Tbs
Chopped almonds, for decoration.
How it is made?
Baking cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour the 8 inch cake pan and set it aside.
- In a pan melt the chocolate with brewed coffee over a large pan of simmering water.
- Cream the butter and sugar for several minutes till the mixture is fluffy and pale white.Then blend in the egg yolks.
- With a electric beater, beat the egg whites in a slow speed, add a pinch of salt and lemon juice then increase the speed till soft peaks are formed. Then sprinkle a Tbs of sugar and keep beating till the stiff peaks are formed.
- Then with a spatula add the melted chocolate to the butter sugar mixture and blend them in with almond extract and pulverized almonds. Then alternating egg whites and cake flour fold them in gently till they are fully incorporated. Take care not to over mix them it will deflate the egg whites.
- Pour the batter in the prepared cake pan and bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Cool the cake pan for about 10 minutes and then remove from the pan.
- Let it cool completely before applying the chocolate icing.
To prepare icing
- Melt the chocolate with coffee in a small pan over a large pan of simmering water.
- Keep a large pan of ice cold water ready.
- Once the chocolate is melted, transfer the chocolate pan to the ice water pan and mix the butter one tbs at a time until they are firm enough to spread.
To decorate the cake
Evenly spread the icing on the cake and decorate it with chopped almonds.
Slice, serve and enjoy!!
My notes
- Since I didn't want to use the rum, used freshly brewed coffee.
- Also I used semi sweet chocolate chips, so used 1/2 cup of it for the cake and 1/4 of it for the icing.
- Take 1/2 cup of all purpose flour, take a Table spoon of flour away from it and add a Tablespoon of corn starch, sift them together and use as a substitution for cake flour.
- For pulverizing the almonds, just took the whole almonds and powdered them in a food processor.
- To check the done'ness of the cake, the cake will be puffed to the top of the pan, the tooth pick inserted comes out clean. However, the centre of the cake should move slightly when the cake pan is shaken gently.
- Tips for beating egg whites:
- The bowl and the beater used should be clean with no traces of grease or even egg yolks.
- Eggs should be of room temperature. Chilled egg whites don't mount well.
- Lemon juice is used as a stabilizer. Alternatively you can use cream of tartar or vinegar.