Melt-In-Your-Mouth Chocolate Cake

Today, we held another small dinner, this time with the theme of "Mari Kita Memasak", hehe. Nasrul (yes, the same Nasrul who occasionally leaves a message on the message box) wanted to know how to make Claypot Chicken Rice. Its actually a pretty simple recipe, hehe, but I guess the length of the ingredient list can scare people. Because we were planning to DDR some more, we invited Azriana over as well, hehe.

For dessert, in addition to all the left-over desserts we've had from the past few dinners (including yesterday!), I had also baked a chocolate cake. It was actually supposed to be for yesterday, but they had already brought a cake, so what to do...? I was unsure on how long it would stay fresh in the fridge though, so I decided to serve it up today, no matter how many desserts we had already. (Plus, I couldn't stand it. I HAD to taste it, haha) The cake was amazingly simple to make, but sounded very very rich. It had to be good. ;) So, here we go!


What you need:
200g good-quality dark chocolate
200g butter
200g sugar
5 eggs
1 heaped tablespoon plain flour

What you do:

1. Preheat an oven to 200 C. Line an 8-inch cake pan with baking paper, and grease well.
2. Melt the butter with the chocolate. Be careful not to burn.
3. Add the sugar and stir well to combine. Leave to cool a little.
4. Add the eggs one by one, mixing well with a spoon after each addition. Add the flour and mix well.
   
5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake in the oven for exactly 25 minutes. (The centre can be slightly trembling).
6. Let the cake cool down a bit and then turn out to a rack to cool completely.
7. Wrap tightly in cling wrap and refrigerate. Take out about an hour before serving (with whipped cream, if you decire, whoo~!)

This recipe is from an excellent food blog, Chocolate and Zucchini. From the description of the cake in the post, this is supposed have a fantastic crust while the the inside is ooey gooey chocolatey goodness. Sounds fantastic! And true enough, it is sooooooo good! I truly believe I am addicted to it. It is completely not like a cake at all. Its sooo moist and chocolatey and soooo creamy and.... its awesome!

And the worst thing is, IT'S SO EASY TO MAKE! All you need is a microwave, a spoon and some bowls! No electric mixer, no specialist equipment at all. Its almost as easy as the Maltesers cake! Oh, and you do need a cake pan, and I suggest a loose-bottomed cake pan at the very least, or a spring-form cake tin, so you can remove the cake easily to cool it down. This cake is a bit fragile, especially in the beginning when its a bit hot. Its a bit more firm once cold though, even though the inside still melts in your mouth. Fantastic!

Apparently, with dark chocolate cakes, its best to make it the day before you serve it, and leave it to chill in the fridge. My cake pan was leaky, I forgot to check the bottom was secure, heh. So I placed a piece of baking paper underneath it to catch the drippings. Once these cooled, we were able to "sample" the drippings as a preview of the actual cake, hehe. And I must say, the cold one was definitely better, hehe. Almost like ice-cream! A very rich chocolate ice-cream. The crust on the warm one was crunchier though, which was nice. But I had to leave the cake in the fridge for 2 days, so that might have deteriorated the crust a little. Oh well. The cake was none the worse for it, hehe.

Trust me. This cake is GOOD! The only problem now is the sheer amount of desserts we've been eating these past few days!

In the end, I found it a bit harder to cook for 5 people, as opposed to 3 people (or maybe 2 people and 1 Justin, hehe), but it turned out quite good. The chicken especially, was soooo flavoursome. To cater for the spicy eaters (all of them), I added in sliced dried chillies to the chicken. The rice was just so-so. I think I need to up the seasoning of it a bit more, hehe. But the chicken was amazing. Sticky and salty with a slight hint of shiitake. Sooo good! Look at that! The glistening chicken pieces.... *drool*



Quote of the day: Chocolate is an anti-depressant, which is especially useful as you start to gain weight.