Chocolate Cream (Dream) Cake

Dreamy beyond your imagination.

What is it about dreams that’s so fascinating. I have never figured out why I dream the things I do while I’m stacking the ZZZZZZZZ’s. I’m sure everyone has had the dream where you fear someone is chasing you and you can’t get away or you go to school with your pj’s on and how embarrassed you were.

The dreams that use to disrupted my sleep the most were my catering dreams where I forgot to buy the food and got to the party with no food cook and only an hour before the guests arrived and while I’m quickly trying to throw something together I’m telling myself “WAKE UPPPPPPP” this is only a dream. No matter what my dream is it’s gone in a wink as soon as my eyes are open. My husband, on the other hand, dreams in technicolor and the most elaborate involved dreams you have ever heard; dreams he can’t even interpret and he can go on for 15 minutes telling me every detail of the dream.

This chocolate cake just happens to be the dreamiest chocolate cake and you could not even dream up something this delicious. I saw Laura Calder of French Food at Home (Cooking Channel) make this and knew I had to give it a try. She calls it Chocolate Cream Cake; I think this is the cake you may dream about or in my case it may be the cake that keeps me from going to sleep.

My most trusted chocolate taster has to be my friend, Gordon. He loves chocolate more than anyone I have ever known and he never gains an ounce from eating too much of it. So He was my first person to go to to try the cake. I told him to be honest and let me know how he liked it. It passed his strict standards I guess when it comes to chocolate desserts and got a thumbs up. This is a flourless cake so it is going to be really dense and chocolate. I have a wonder normal chocolate cake recipe made the old fashion way I will blog this winter.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: Here is a cute little raspberry treat I did a couple of years ago — Chambord Ganache Filled Raspberries.

All the ingredients for a “dreamy” dessert

I used a 4 oz. bar of semi-sweet chocolate and 12 ounces of bittersweet chocolate.

I used a 9″ pan (see note below). Grease the bottom of the pan and line with parchment paper. Set in a roasting pan which will allow you to put water half way up the sides of the round pan. (Do not use springform pan)

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.

Put the eggs into a glass or heat proof bowl and set over warm water to beat.

Beat eggs for 10 minutes.  I did not have hand mixer so I had to use a whisk and it was very tiring. The eggs will not get thick as whip cream as Laura’s recipe says just beat for 10 minutes and that’s good enough. I also add the espresso, rum and vanilla to the egg mixture instead of the chocolate.  The liquids could seize up the chocolate making it clumpy.

Slowly mix in the chocolate to the egg mixture.

Fold in the whipped cream into the egg/chocolate mixture.

Pour the batter into the pan and set the pan into the roasting pan and fill with boiling water half way up side of pan.

This isn’t a very high cake but very rich and sweet. (Cut small slices)

Garnish with some whipped cream, raspberry and mint leaves.

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Chocolate Cream (Dream) Cake

Ingredients

• 1/4 c. Cognac or rum
• 1/4 c. espresso
• 16 oz. bittersweet chocolate broken into pieces
• 1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 c. sugar or more to taste
• 1 c. heavy cream chilled
• gold leaf optional
• whipped heavy cream slightly sweetened for serving
• Fresh raspberries optional

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line with parchment paper a 10-inch cake pan, with quite high sides.
2. Boil a full kettle of water and set aside. Have a roasting pan at the ready that will accommodate the cake pan comfortably.
3. Put the Cognac or rum, espresso, chocolate and vanilla into a saucepan and melt over a bain-marie.
4. Break the eggs into a large glass or metal bowl with the sugar. Set the bowl over a pot of warm water, and beat until the mixture has tripled in volume and has the consistency of whipped cream. This will take about 10 minutes.
5. In a separate bowl, whip the cream into peaks.
6. Partially fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Add the whipped heavy cream and continue folding the mixtures until evenly combined. Pour into the cake pan. Set the cake pan into the roasting pan, and slide it into the oven. Now, pour the hot water from the kettle into the roasting pan halfway up the sides of the cake pan.
7. Bake until set, about 1 hour. Turn off the oven, open the door and let the cake sit for 15 minutes to sink evenly back into the pan. Remove the cake from the oven and let it sit 30 minutes in the water bath. Remove from the bath and flip the cake onto a platter. Press gold leaf, if using, on the top to decorate. Serve with sweetened whipped cream on the side.

Recipe Notes

Notes: On the show, Laura Calder halved the ingredients and baked the cake in a smaller pan. This written recipe makes a larger cake (9" pan). She also said to add the vanilla, rum and espresso to the chocolate while melting. But, while reading comments about the cake people talked about the chocolate seizing up. Chocolate will seize if liquid is added; I don't know if the amounts given keeps if from doing so; I just know if you add like a tablespoon of any liquid to melting chocolate it will start to clump up.  I added the rum, espresso and vanilla to the beaten egg mixture. One other thing is she says to beat the eggs until the consistency of whipped cream. Honestly, I don't think that is possible. I don't have a hand mixer so I was beating my eggs with a large whisk. They might have gotten close to UN-WHIPPED cream but not WHIPPED. Let me know if you try this and use a hand mixer if you ever get the whipped consistency. One other thing is I would like for my cake to be a little thicker so next time I try this I will make in a 8" pan.