Chocolate Valentino

I seriously can't believe that its the end of February. School has been really hectic and I couldn't find any time for myself, let alone time to bake. :/

Anyway, I finally completed it since this Daring Bakers' Challenge was pretty straight forward and simple. A flourless chocolate cake, served with home-made ice-cream. I paired the warm chocolate cake with a salted-caramel & almond ice cream. Overall, it was a really good combination and we really liked it alot. However, the cake had a rather weak structure and wasn't very easy to slice at all. But the flavour of the cake was intense! I used 72% cocoa chocolate and boy did it taste divine. It was moist, chocolaty and really really fudgy. (: (: (:

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.

Chocolate Valentino
adapted from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan
16 ounces semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
1 stick plus 2 T unsalted butter
5 large eggs, separated

Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering 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.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
Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

C is for Cookie

Made these chocolate chunk & almond oatmeal cookies again today for those lazybums coming over to watch recorded episodes of thelittlenyonya. Crispy at the edges and almost chewy in the middle, these delectable cookies are chockful of dark chocolate chunk and chopped almonds.


Stella baked Devil's Food Cupcakes for us to take to the airport. Thank goodness for those, if not I wouldn't have survived the flight. (gross airplane food) They were really good!

Chocolate Chunk & Almond Oatmeal Cookies
250g rolled oats
100g plain flour
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
170g unsalted butter
180g Demarara sugar
1 egg
2 t pure vanilla extract
1 cup dark chocolate, chopped
120g almonds, toasted & chopped

Preheat oven to 350F.Mix together oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Mix in chocolate chunks and almonds, toss gently to coat. In a seperate bowl, cream butter & sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 min. Add egg and vanilla, beating to combine. Fold in dry ingredients by hand until incorporated. (Using a mixer here, might cause over-mixing)
Portion batter using an ice-cream scoop/teaspoon onto a baking sheet. Flatten the cookies slightly. Bake the cookies for about 10-15 min, depending on the size, until light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.