A Chocolate Valentino

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's" blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We 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.


It was suppose to be served on Valentines Day. We were going to have a aged beef tenderloin with blue cheese cream on top, a nice bottle of wine that we were saving, and a magnificent dessert. The Daring Bakers challenge was the perfect thing, for just this occasion.
Then Friday I started feeling not so good. I went to bed at four o'clock and slept till eight the next morning. Yes, you read that right. Four in the afternoon till eight the next morning. 16 hours of sleep! It was sweat pants and hot tea all weekend. No tempting tenderloin, no wonderful wine, and no daring dessert. In fact, it was a scrambled egg kind of valentines dinner. O.K. I threw in a little cheese to celebrate the night. Romantic huh? NOT!


So the next weekend I made the planned dinner. Complete with the Daring Bakers challenge which was a flourless chocolate cake and homemade ice cream. Dinner was glorious and the wine was perfect. I made individual little cakes in my rose shaped pan. There were beautiful little black specs in my vanilla bean ice cream. I lovingly plated my masterpiece of a dessert with one little rose cake, tiny little scoops of ice cream, a big ripe strawberry. A sweet swirl of chocolate sauce graced each perfect plate.

I draped a table with a satin red tablecloth. I adjusted my light to get that perfect picture and I loving did my photo shoot. It was a perfect evening, a tantalizing dinner, a wonderful wine, and a sweet ending. All was excellent and I was set to do my Daring Baker challenge post.

BUT!

The next week, as I was playing on Facebook, one of my favorite things to do, my computer froze. I tried rebooting, I did a couple of scans that popped up. I had the Hubby play around with it. The conclusion?

It crashed.

Then my Hubby found me curled up in the fetal position on the bed, sucking my thumb, crying WHY? WHY? I lost it all. My photos, my feeds, my bookmarks, My Daring Baker Challenge photos! It was all gone. The Hubby knew he had better call our computer guru.

So my beloved laptop is now at the computer hospital in what I pray is capable hands. We are hoping he can save a limb or a byte or a picture. I was hoping to know by the DB reveal day, but I haven't heard anything yet. I have been sitting on pins and needles for days now. It seems like weeks. I miss my laptop. I miss my friends on Facebook. I've barely Tweeted since the crash. Everything is not alright in my world. When did I become so addicted?


So my friends, I have nothing for you but a recipe to the fabulous dessert. No rosy cakes, no screaming ice cream, no little swirl of chocolate sauce. I did think about redoing the challenge, but, do you know how many calories I would have to consume again? I was going to take a hit for the team but my pants are just starting to fit better and that trumped the redo. But there are a thousand flourless chocolate cakes and ice cream to be had out there this week in the blogosphere. Go check out all the other Daring Bakers and get ready to drool. I had a preview of the showing and it was all delicious.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We 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.

Chocolate Valentino

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. 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.

2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.

4. 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).

5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

7. 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. {link of folding demonstration}

8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C

9. Bake for 25 minutes or 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.

10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Wendy's Ice Cream Recipe
Vanilla Philadelphia Style Recipe
Preparation Time: 5 minutes

2 cups (473 ml) of half and half (1 cup of heavy cream and 1 cup of whole, full fat milk)
1 cup (237 ml) heavy cream
2/3 (128 grams) cup sugar
Dash of salt
1 (12 grams) tablespoon of vanilla(I used a vanilla bean, scraped, and the extract)

Mix all ingredients together
Mix in your ice cream maker as directed.