Flourless chocolate cake

I’m updating this post today because I suddenly had an incredible realisation. Flourless chocolate cake is amazing. Like really amazing. But it’s MUCH MORE amazing with this raspberry sorbet. 

Anyone who knows me would know that my favourite flavour combination ever is raspberry and chocolate. I almost don’t want to eat chocolate without raspberry sometimes. It’s like once you’ve tried salted caramel - can you really ever go back to caramel without the salt ? I can’t. The rich, luxurious sweetness of the cake is so smoothly balanced with the light, acidic tartness of the sorbet, once you have them together in one bite, it feels like a complete dessert. 

I found the recipe in Rose Levy Barenbaum’s Cake Bible, a cookbook that is exactly what is sounds like - a cake bible. It is a bit dated, so you may not find the new age avocado-matcha-black sesame kind of flavours all that much, but if you like traditional, old fashioned classics (I DO!) then this book is a must-have and I can promise it will spend more time on the counter than on the shelf. She calls this cake a chocolate oblivion torte but here I’m calling it a flourless chocolate cake because I feel like that’s a slightly less intimidating way to put it although it really is as indulgent and decadent as a chocolate oblivion torte, so that name really does justice to it.

This recipe is one of the quickest and easiest chocolate cakes & it’s completely fuss-free. I strongly recommend pairing it with raspberry sorbet, but If you don’t like raspberry, you can pair it with vanilla ice cream, lightly whipped coconut cream or fresh strawberries. And if you want, just have it the way it is because it is still exceptional. 

Recipe (Adapted from Cake bible) 

Ingredients:

400 g bittersweet chocolate, cut into pieces 

200 g unsalted butter

6 eggs 

Process:

Preheat the oven to 180˚ C and line a 8” springform tin with greased parchment paper. 

Melt the chocolate and butter in a large heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon to avoid burning. 

When it is almost completely melted, take it off the heat, stir for about a minute until no lumps remain and leave it to cool.

Heat the eggs in a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water. stir constantly and heat until the eggs are warm to the touch. 

Immediately take it off the heat and beat using an electric whisk. Whisk constantly until the mixture is very fluffy and tripled in volume. 

Gently fold the whisked eggs into the cooled chocolate-butter mixture, using a spatula. Be careful to ensure that it is well incorporated. 

Pour the batter into your greased springform tin. Place tin in a larger pan of water and bake in the centre of the oven for about 35 - 45 minutes or until the top looks set. 

Take it out of the oven and let it cool to room temperature. It might be very soft from the centre when you take it out of the oven but that’s okay. 

When it’s completely cooled, refrigerate for atleast 2 - 4 hours or overnight.  

Notes: 

Since chocolate is basically the only flavour in this dessert, I’d really recommend investing in good cooking chocolate. Try choko la! 

Be really careful while heating the eggs in the bain marie. Whisk constantly and remove from heat as soon as the eggs are warm to touch. Don’t let them get too warm or you’ll have scrambled eggs! 

When folding the eggs into the chocolate mixture, make sure to fold very gently but thoroughly. Sometimes, the heavier chocolate butter components settle at the bottom while the lighter eggs remain on top. So make sure it’s properly incorporated and the mixture is uniform. 

White chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream // First blog birthday →

It has been exactly one whole year since I started this blog! Whaaaat?! One year has FLOWN by and I know that sounds cliche but between all the crazy amounts of chocolate and eggs and fruit and all the other amazing things that magically come together to form dessert, i haven’t had the time to let it all sink in and it seems to have whizzed by.

I did some calculation - I made forty six birthday cakes this year - for friends, family, and other very close people - so yes, sure, they’re so lucky but more importantly IM really friggin lucky that I have so many fantastic people that have loved and supported my blog . This blog has been an effort to learn by experiment and i definitely think I’ve learnt a hell of a lot this year. About baking and flavours and science, of course - but also so much more. For instance, about photography, styling, writing, promoting, and also V IMP life skills (ok, blog skills) such as how to get cake batter off a camera, how to get through wordpress bugs without losing your mind and definitely how to multitask! So. bottom line. Blogging is pretty damn hard. I suddenly have a whole new level of respect for all the fabulous bloggers doing such a great job and perfecting every single detail, and making it look effortless and breezy, because believe me - it is anything but. 

To celebrate one year of baking, blogging and shuttling between the oven and the camera, I made this white chocolate cake with raspberry swiss meringue buttercream. This cake was a result of partly my itch to eat something very typically birthday cake-y and the buttery raspberry frosting on this cake is slathered in generous heaps, in signature birthday fashion.

Anywayyyy, regardless, the cake turned out DELICIOUS, which is not surprising, because buttercream!!!! When someone asks me who it’s for, though, and i attempt to explain my blog birthday and the significance of this day and why it is such a big deal, I’m greeted with blank stares and eye rolling and sometimes even the extremely rude ‘…..what… so it’s for a birthday? your birthday? who’s birthday? your blog’s birthday…. what?!’ So let me put it this way: symbolically, this cake is for everybody who has been an incredible, supportive, enthusiastic participant in my blog life so far - my friends and family and many many online people I’ve gotten to know along the way. I wish i could actually give you all a slice because i am so grateful for all the love I get, but  I am eating it as I write this post and so with a mouthful of cake, may I just say: Thank you!!!! x x x xx 

no churn cookies n cream ice cream

My social media feed is flooded with #NationalIceCreamDay rage. While it is SUPER AWESOME to see so much ice cream on my feed, I’d just like to point out that in Delhi, EVERY DAY of SUMMER is national ice cream day. If you saw the Ice cream day live story on snapchat today,  you’ll agree that snapchat has totally NAILED IT, capturing the real essence of ice cream in all it’s melty, drippy, summery glory. over-the-top ice cream cones, extra toppings, running toward the ice cream truck, and the emergency that befalls when the Ice cream has run out!!! Also, the little kid in purple jumping / running toward the ice cream is all of us through the months of april till september.

You may have noticed that I’m making a SHIT TON of ice cream this summer, on a little instagram series that Im calling #projectXIcecream because how else are you supposed to beat the heat in Delhi?! One of my experiments as a part of this erm… project (?) is no-churn ice cream. I am deeply and wholly committed to my ice cream churner and it is by far my favourite appliance - but if you don’t have one, don’t freak out! There are ways, and incredible little tips and techniques that can result in absolutely life-changing ice cream.

Such as this cookies and cream ice cream. It is exactly what it promises to be - crushed chunks of oreo cookies mixed into vanilla ice cream aka a way for kids to eat the two most indulgent and comforting sugary foods - cookies and ice cream - together. So OBVIOUSLY this is pure genius and we all owe a lot to the guys who came up with this incredible flavour - whoever they are.  

This is a no-cook (eggless), no-churn ice cream which took me a couple of attempts to perfect because i was grappling with ice cream to cookie ratio and also trying to figure out how i feel about the sugar content. (It may not sound like it’s right up there with laboratory research, but it is science, i swear!).

This ice cream doesn't require an ice cream machine to make it - instead, the cream is whipped over an ice bath and folded into the mix - a technique that does a somewhat similar job to an ice cream churner. The recipe calls for using only a few ingredients and it’s best not to create your own substitutions and omissions without due research. Every ingredient is important - for example - a tablespoon of bourbon has SUPER special role in ice cream texture because it doesn’t allow the ice cream to freeze too hard, because alcohol doesn’t freeze! I learnt this not long ago thanks to David Leibovitz …and chemistry. So your ice cream stays creamy and soft and scoopable (thats a word right?).

I tried to record a video of this to explain the process visually, but not-so-surprisingly, i messed up something on my camera with my sticky, milkmaidy fingers and it did NOT turn out as planned at all. Reminder to self to be more organised / find my tripod/ charge camera battery/ maybe buy one of those remote thingys from which i can operate the camera without being next to it/ and most importantly, focus on one creative process at a time. And to breathe.

Anyway,

here is the recipe: 

Ingredients: 

500 ml heavy cream

1 can condensed milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp bourbon

2 packets crushed oreos (cream filling removed) 

In a large mixing bowl, stir condensed milk, vanilla and bourbon

In a separate bowl, whisk the heavy cream over an ice bath using an electric mixer. 

When stiff peaks are formed, gently fold the heavy cream into the condensed milk mixture

fold in crushed oreo bits

Pour into a tin of the appropriate size. 

Cover with loose cling wrap so that it lightly touches the top surface of the ice cream. This will prevent it from forming icy crystals on top.

Freeze for 6 - 8 hours or overnight. 

Enjoy! 

Notes: 

The cream should be kept refrigerated before hand. I use amul fresh cream. Although the pack mentions the volume, it’s best to use a measuring cup and measure the exact quantity. Also, if the cream has watery bits, drain those out. You should have 500 ml of thick cream.

Prepare an ice bath by taking lots of ice in a large dish (a roasting pan or baking tray). Also add a little rock salt to the ice if possible (not essential but it helps). The rock salt helps to lower the temperature of the ice, making it even colder. Place your bowl of cream on this salty ice bath and whisk at high speed using a handheld electric mixer. It may take some time for the cream to become fluffy, so be patient!

If you don’t like your ice cream to be too sweet, start by using only 3/4th of the milkmaid can. Check the taste and add more condensed milk if you want it sweeter.