In Lieu of a Real Post

I shall give you food.

I like to call this the  “Stop your heart Chocolate Espresso Cake”

Another recipe I got from culinary school.  It requires only a little bit of skill.  Getting the darn thing out of the pan and glazing it.  (more on how I messed that up later)

Ingredients:

1 lb unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brewed espresso
11 oz semi or bitter sweet chocolate, chopped (or use chips)
5 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
8 eggs, beaten (like beaten like you were going to make scrambled eggs.. don’t kill ‘em. Just beat ‘em up a bit)
Before you start:

Preheat oven to 350

Prepare your pan.
You need a 10″ cake pan. Grease it with crisco or butter and then place a round of parchment paper in the bottom. Grease the parchment. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.
Find yourself a baking dish that your pan will fit into. You will be baking this in a water bath which is why you are using a regular cake pan, not a springform pan. Set your cake pan inside your baking dish to hang out.  It helps if your baking dish has handles since you will be hauling this back out of the oven full of really hot water.  If it doesn’t try putting it on a cookie sheet so at least you have something to grab.

Put a kettle of water on to boil

Method:

In a 2 quart saucepan, bring the butter, sugar and espresso to a boil.
Remove from heat and add the chocolate and whisk in all at once (seriously, get those arm muscles going)
Whisk in the eggs
(note: the recipe says to “whisk in the eggs” but it assumes a lot. What you really want to do is TEMPER the eggs first. Then whisk.)

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  It should be nice and smooth (and smell amazing)

Put your baking dish with the pan in it in the oven, pour the boiling water in the baking dish until it comes up to about the middle of the cake pan.

Bake your cake for about 30-35 minutes until it’s set. Remove (carefully) from the oven and the pan from the water bath.

Let cake chill over night. (really… I mean it)

The next day you are going to have to unmold it. I like to use a cake board (or a round piece of cardboard, maybe cut out of the side of a box and covered with foil) because I usually have to BANG the pan to get it out. Tips to follow.

Run a metal thin knife around the edge of the pan. Put the cake board on top of your cake and invert.
Is is stuck? Of course it is.

Here is what you do.. Turn on the burner on your stove (gas is the best but use what you have). Once it’s hot, put the bottom of the cake pan on your burner and SPIN the cake pan quickly. This will melt the crisco that is sticking to the parchment and will help the cake release. Flip the cake back over and BANG the cake on the edge of the counter. It should fall out. You may have to do this a few times.

Voila!

Remove the parchment from the top of the cake. Put the the cake and cakeboard on a cooling rack over a sheet pan (commonly known as a cookie sheet)

Make your French Chocolate Glaze.

In a saucepan, Combine
2 1/2 ounces of water (that’s um.. 1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon)
1 Tbsp Corn Syrup
3 Tbsp Butter

Bring to boil and remove from heat. Whisk in 8 ounces of semi or bitter sweet chocolate chips.

When it’s slightly thickened, but not super hot, pour over your cake. Mine got a little gloppy and cool before I could pour it on.

Let set and keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Cutting this thing is a bear. Use your longest knife and dip into hot water after every cut. Or! do what I did and heat your blade up on the gas burner. You will want to wipe off the chocolate after every cut. Please resist the urge to lick it off… you don’t want to cut your tongue… and you will be temped… resist!

If you have any questions on how to make this, let me know. It’s really easy.. but I included a lot of little details to help you.