Would you guys believe me if I told you that I am not perfect? I know, I know...hard to believe, but it's true.
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.
This is my sixth challenge as a Daring Baker. It was bound to happen. I almost feel embarrassed that I FAILED this challenge. I mean, how can you screw up something with only three ingredients? I should have failed at the challenge that had eleventy thousand ingredients. Not this. Oh well, at least I had ice cream to make me feel better.
In case you were wondering, a chocolate Valentino is a flourless chocolate cake. We were also challenged to come up with an ice cream accompaniment. I decided to make the cake for my friend's Oscar party. It didn't take very long, but the part where I failed was overwhipping the egg whites. It even says in the recipe. "Do not overwhip the egg whites". You want to know what happens when you overwhip the egg whites? You get a dry, inedible cake which eventually will be introduced to the trash can. There was no way I could serve this at the party. Lesson learned...DO. NOT. OVERWHIP. EGG. WHITES!
If you missed it, the ice cream (star anise and vanilla bean) recipe is here. Many Daring Baker's cakes turned out beautifully. Visit the blogroll and check them out!
Chocolate Valentino
(From Chef Wan's Sweet Treats: 240 Pastry Recipes from Asia's Most Flamboyant Food Ambassador
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated
Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry). With the same beater beat the egg yolks together. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.
Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.
25 comments:
Well, this looks like a fine screw up to me. I'll eat this, looks fine to me.
failure or not, that looks yummy and chocolatey to me! you can send it to me if you're not going to eat it ;)
and i'm saddened to hear you're not perfect! you can't just spring things on us like that ;)
Oh, I'm so relieved that I'm not the only one who totally disregarded the "do not overbeat the egg whites" warning! Mine looked great but went into the garbage after the first bite! Ugh.
This was my first DB challenge so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for next time!
Michelle
http://oneordinaryday.wordpress.com/
If this is a failure to you...I'll come by and pick them up! This looks yummy.
I hate that it didn't work out for you. But that's why they call these challenges, right? If its any consolation, I didn't care for the finished product anyway. Mine went in the garbage as well. It was just way too rich (and I LOVE rich most of the time). Better luck next time!
It's too bad it doesn't taste as good as it looks. The ice cream flavor sounds fantastic.
It looks good from here!! I'm sorry it didn't taste good. Did you eat it yourself? Maybe the ice cream would give it some moisture.
You guys are so nice. It looked far far FAR better than it tasted. The texture was dry and disgusting. Thank goodness for the ice cream...I still have some left!
Michelle, I hope your next challenge is better :)
Your perfect to me!!!!
And so is your challange!!!
Hey, it looks beautiful, and it's chocolate..you can always nuke it :) That star anise ice cream sounds amazing. Must try it! Nicely done!
Aww well at least your ice cream turned out great! And you know what? The cake still looks pretty gosh darn great!
This is what you call a failure! It looks beautiful to me. Feel free to send over any future "failures" to my house. ;)
hey you should have crumble the cake up and use it as sprinkle on top of the ice cream! I think it will work perfectly well too! :)
Awww...you should have seen the last time I overwhipped the heavy cream. Nasty stuff -- and ugly, too. At least your cake is looking all purdy sitting there, AND you made the challenge with eleventy million steps. You get a big star for that one.
Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you. Still looks delicious, though!
What a bummer, at least it looks good! And you have some killer ice cream.
simply amazing.
Even on the "simple" challenges I learn something. This time it was "Don't forget to add the butter". (You'd think I could manage three ingredients without a problem, but no...) It looks wonderful and I am glad the ice cream was yummy!
Oh Esi, even perfection has its off days ;) I've been dreaming about your ice cream since you first posted it, and I even checked out the Spice whatsit website where they publised your photo. How cool is that? Good for you, girl!
It is interesting that the easiest of challenges turned out not to work for you. But, in all consolation, over beating the egg whites is an easy thing to do. If you look away for just a moment it can happen.
Don't give up on making flour less cakes, there are many terrific recipes out there that will work great for you.
I perused your other challenges and you are a great baker. This was one miss in many hits. MANY hits.
awwwwww :( We all mess up in the kitchen. I actually think I learn more about cooking when I mess up than when I don't! Hope you had a good weekend chicky
So simple! I invite you to try my flourless chocolate cake (Our #1 Favorite Chocolate Cake on my site)...and please let me know what you think.
At least you got your egg whites folded in well enough, even if it didn't work out. My initial failure cake still had little lumps of egg whites because they were so dry it was hard to get them to break up! Your ice cream looks wonderful, though.
Wow, that looks like an amazing cake! So glad you liked it ;) [inside jock!!!!]
Sorry, this happened to you, but I'm sure your second attempt will be successful!
The ice cream looks great.
Well it's safe to say we'd still eat a piece. It looks cute with the ice cream on top!
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