Well, it is that time of the month again – time to reveal the Daring Bakers challenge for February. The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
They 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.
A chocolate valentine cake sounded particularly exciting and also appropriate given that Valentines Day is in February. And as for ice cream, with having been in the smaller kitchen of our rented flat this summer, I haven’t used my ice cream maker as much as I think I will in future summers, so it was good to be able to use that as well.
The instructions for the chocolate cake were to use your favourite chocolate as this is essentially what the cake would end of tasting like. My favourite eating chocolate is actually dairy milk, but even though the instructions said you could use that, I think milk chocolate can be a bit too sweet in baking. So I ended up using Whittakers 72% chocolate. I also scaled the recipe back to 1/5th and made the cake in two small brioche moulds. With most of our kitchen gear packed up I haven’t got anything larger than a 6 inch round cake pan out and also, we didn’t need to be eating a whole cake!!
I really really love chocolate but I actually found the cake to be a bit strong for me. I wonder if it was because of the darkness of my chocolate. Maybe about 60% would have been not so strong. The cake is a flourless cake and is basically just melted chocolate butter, eggs and sugar. It is very much something you would have for pudding. That’s why the ice-cream went perfectly with it.
I didn’t make either of the ice-cream recipes offered in the challenge and instead used a David Lebowitz recipe for Philadelphia ice-cream. Philadelphia style ice-cream is really easy to make as you don’t have to make a custard before. In fact there are no eggs in at all – just cream, milk, sugar and flavouring – in this case, vanilla. I used half cream and half milk (low fat milk actually) and I was surprised by how creamy the ice-cream was for something that was relatively low in fat. I will definitely make this style again.
All in all this was a fun challenge to make, but for me it wasn’t overly challenging. See what the other Daring Bakers thought here.
16 comments:
Your cake and icecream look amazing Tammy. Love the little flecks of vanilla bean in your icecream.
c'est superbe Tammy ! Moi aussi je n'ai fait que 1/5 de la recette.
I'm with you. I've made more enjoyable flourless chocolate cakes, too. Your little single serve hearts are lovely to look at though!
Your chocolate heart turned out preciously! A great February challenge, for sure.
Thanks for joining us and well done on getting the ice cream and cake done without any problems...
Great job this month! Your cake and ice cream look delicious! I used milk chocolate in my cake and thought it was great. I like my chocolate a little sweeter so I didn't mind the sweetness.
You would for certain steal anyone's heart with this one. Wasn't it a fun challenge and so yummy.
It looks absolutely wonderful! I actually normally go for all bittersweet, but toned it down this time - this was one *chocolatey* cake!
Your cake looks wonderful. I love DL"s Philadelphia style vanilla ice cream. It is my go to recipe for ice cream.
This cake was definitely very rich. I used 61% chocolate, which did seem to work pretty well. But I agree that it needed the ice cream to go with it.
I know what you mean about too strong--milk chocolate is my favorite, too. For me, a little of both definitely lessened the intensity. At any rate, as always, your dessert is pretty as a picture!
great job - i agree, not much of a challenge - but i welcomed the break! next month should be fun :)
Your cake and ice cream look fantastic! David's ice cream recipe is one of my favorites. I'm sure it was the perfect complement to that rich, fudgy cake. Great job!
So fun to see your take--I'll have to try the Philadelphia style ice cream next time.
Looks great! I love the little hearts. Good call using a DL ice cream recipe, his are soo good.
ps, I love the pretty pink cookies below - makes me want to make them for my daughter... who is almost twenty but never too old for pretty cookies!
Lovely to see the flecks of vanilla in the ice cream. Lovely job on the challenge.
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