I have recently made two different chocolate cakes. These two different chocolate cakes combine additional flavours such as cinnamon, apple, or plum, chestnut. Interestingly both have dark rum.
One is a rich dense flourless chocolate cake with flavours of chestnuts and prunes and dark rum, the other one is a light chocolate mousse cinnamon, apple and dark rum dessert.
Gateau Mozart
This is a recipe from Pierre Hermé “Le Larousse du Chocolat“. Pierre Hermé is a famous french pastry chef, most famous for his macarons. His cookbook Le Larousse du Chocolat gathers good chocolate recipes across France and some of Pierre Hermé as well.
I had not done the Gateau Mozart for some time (recipe HERE). Imagine three very thin disks of sweet shortcrust pastry with a subtle cinnamon flavour alternating with a light chocolate mousse which contains apples cooked in butter, a pinch of cinnamon and have been flambé !
Flourless chestnut, chocolate and rum cake
I found this recipe a while ago in the Delicious Magazine. I had cut out the recipe and placed in my cookbooks. This recipe intrigued me because of the combination of chestnut and prune and rum. With chestnut puree, you retain a lot of moisture and the flavour is undeniable. Years ago, I made up a chestnut steamed pudding. It is such a nice dessert. My curiosity was picked.
The gateau au chocolat de Suzy takes its name from the woman who created this chocolate cake, called “Suzanne”. The recipe was published in the “Larousse du Chocolat” from Pierre Herme.
This recipe is pretty easy. There is not need to know how to separate and fold eggwhites, really simple! The cake is delicious and quite chocolaty but not so much that children cannot have it.
Difficulty: Easy
Preparation time: 10 min
Cooking: 30 min
Serves 8
Ingredients:
- 250 g of dark cooking chocolate at 60-64 % (or a combination of 70% and 50% or just go for 70%)
- 250 g of salted butter + a little bit to prepare the mould
- 4 eggs
- 220 g of caster sugar
- 70 g of plain flour + a little more for the mould
Note: The ingredients include butter and flour to prepare the mould, which works really well with this cake. If you prefer lining your mould with baking paper (sometimes much safer), you will not need the extra flour. If you are using a silicone mould, there is no need to butter and flour your tin or to line it.
Tip: you must use a good chocolate, in Australia you can find the Nestle Plaistowe in about all supermarkets (they have 50 % and 70%).
Method:
- Preheat the oven on 180°C
- Break the chocolate in pieces and melt with the butter over a bain marie or other method of your choice. You can microwave full power on 1 minute and then per 30 seconds if not sufficient.
- In a bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Make sure you give a good whisking, you can even get out your kitchenAid or similar here.Tip: if using a whisk, use a large one, it will be much easier and quicker to get a fluffy pale creamy mix.
- Add the melted chocolate-butter mix. Mix in the flour.
- Butter and flour a 22 cm round tin (or similar size). Alternatively, you can choose to line the tin with baking paper on the base and butter&flour the sides.
- Pour the batter in the tin and bake for about 30 min (this will change slightly depending on the oven and the diameter of your tin). The cake is cooked when a skewer inserted through the center comes out dry (there may be bit of chocolate on it, the cake is cooked as long as it is not liquid) or when there is no more wobble when you place your hand over the center of the cake and gently move the top.
- Cool down on a grid: slide it if you are using a pull apart tin or turn it over twice gently so the bottom part is on the grid. If you are using a silicone mould, leave it to cool in it.
This one is a winner. Definitely. It was gone in such a short time from the kitchen bench, it did not even have time to move from it!
I tried some beetroot chocolate cake recipe a while ago, but was not completely won over. This time it is different. The recipe is inspired from BBC Good Food. I added cocoa nibs and pieces of chocolate.
Ingredients:
This makes quite a large brownie. For a 18×18 cm square tin divide by two.
- 500 g beetroot steemed (3-4 medium beets)
- 100 g unsalted butter, plus extra for the tin
- 200 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 100 g plain flour
- 30 g dutch cocoa powder
- 100 g cocoa nibs
- 150 g dark cooking chocolate cut in chuncks (0.5 mm max)
Method:
- Peel the beetroot, steam the beetroot. Place in the food processor to reduce to a mash.
- Heat oven to 180°C.
- While the beetroot cooks, butter then line the baking tin. Melt the butter and chocolate together. Add to the beetroot and blend until super smooth. Add the cocoa.
- Put the sugar and eggs into a large bowl or food processor, then beat until thick, pale and foamy, about 2 mins. Add in the chocolate-beetroot mix. Add the flour and gently fold in using a large spatula.
- Pour into the prepared tin, place on top the cocoa nibs and cut chocolate chips and using a fork insert it into the mix. You can alternatively add them at the same time as the flour, it should work, I have not yet tried that way.
- Bake for 25 mins or until it starts to crack (but not too much) on top and is just set in the middle.
- Cool completely in the tin, then cut into squares and dust with cocoa powder.
The recipe for this flourless raspberry, almond and chocolate cake was created out of a test I did one night some eight years ago. I had completely forgotten about it, until I visited the Orange Grove market a year ago where the same cakes in individual portions are sold.
When I first made this cake, we lived in Bondi Beach. I remember because it became the favourite after diner snack of a Swedish flatmate at the time, when she left, she specifically asked for the recipe (which I gave her).
Now, more important for some of you, this cake has no flour! If you run out of almond meal as happens to me from time to time, you can swap for hazelnut meal, I tried, it works!
Ingredients:
Makes a 20 cm ring cake.
- 40 g butter
- 2 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 100 g dark cooking chocolate
- 1/2 cup of buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 50 g of caster sugar
- 75 g of almond meal
- 1 cup of frozen raspberries
Method:
- Preheat oven to 160°C, line the bottom of a 20 cm diameter (or close to 20 cm) circular tin.
- Melt the chocolate and butter together.
- Add one after the other one, mixing well in between: the sugar, cocoa powder, and buttermilk.
- Now, add the egg yolks one at the time keeping the eggwhites in a separate bowl.
- Add the almond meal.
- Beat the egg white to snow and gently fold in.
- Pour the batter in the tin and spread delicately the raspberries on top.
- Bake until the centre is settled (no longer wobbly).For the baking the key is to cook slowly to prevent burning.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool down completely before removing the cake from the tin.
- Ice with icing sugar.
This hazelnut chocolate cake is soft, rich in chocolate and will get you going for more. This recipe contains mascarpone and hazelnuts. I love the taste of the roasted hazelnuts in it.
This recipe is from Frank Camorra and was published in Good Food. The cake is beautiful. In terms of difficulty, it goes into the easy basket.
Ingredients
- 150 g hazelnuts, toasted and skinned -see tip
- 100 g ground almonds
- 100 g dried breadcrumbs -see tip
- 300 g good cooking chocolate
- 165 g butter, softened
- 150 g caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 150 g mascarpone cheese
Tip on toasted and skinned hazelnuts: Place the hazelnuts on a single level under the grill, shake from time to time. When toasted, place the hazelnut into a tea-towel, close the towel and rub the fabric and nuts. The skins will peel off.
Tip on making your own bread crumbs: toast a few pieces of bread until quite coloured but not burned. Use the rolling pin and roll over the tasted bread. Toast again if necessary. You will not manage to get the whole slice into crumbs. Repeat the process until you have the quantity sought. To make the crumbs finer, whiz in a little food processor.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 160°C and line a 24 centimetre spring-form pan with baking paper.
- Whiz the hazelnuts in a food processor until they are finely and evenly ground, then add the ground almonds and breadcrumbs and pulse the processor a few times to mix. Remove from the processor and reserve in a bowl.
- Break up the chocolate into a heatproof bowl, place over a pot of simmering water (the bowl should not touch the water) and stir until melted. With a whisk or in the food processor, whiz the butter and sugar until well mixed, then add the eggs.
- Add the vanilla, ground nuts, chocolate and mascarpone and mix together well.
- Pour into the spring-form pan and bake for about 40-45 minutes (the surface of the cake usually cracks in a ring).
Cool slightly before serving. You can, once cold enough, dust with icing sugar.
Serving suggestions:
Top with roasted strawberries and some sauce and/or add a dollop of creme fraiche or whipped cream.
