So yonks and yonks ago, me and Hamizah went to Cheezbox for lunch. Food was so-so but the memory of the Ultimate Chocolate cake remains to this very day. Not that I remember what it tasted like now, but I remember it was good. Fast forward a couple of years, I've tried various different molten chocolate cakes here and there, but none quite got it right. Not to mention all (including Cheezbox's) are exorbitantly priced, for a student anyways.
So what better than to recreate it at home right? Never really bothered before, but with the youngest sister being here and bored and missing baking, well, what to do right? Unfortunately, my place doesn't have a *proper* ovem, but we visited NisNis (lols) in Colchester last weekend so we thought... well, why not? We found a simple recipe, she has an oven.... so here we go!
What you need (for three 6-oz ramekins):
100g dark chocolate, best quality you can find
100g butter, cut into cubes
2 eggs
50g caster sugar
20g self-raising flour
What you do:
- Melt the dark chocolate and butter together in a microwave.
- In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until the mixture turns pale and frothy.
- Pour the chocote-butter mixture into the egg-sugar mixture. Stir in the flour with a spatula until everything is smooth and well-combined.
- Grease ramekins with melted butter (do this well, otherwise your cakes will be stuck!). Fill the ramekin almost 3/4 full with the chocolate mixture.
- Bake the cakes in a preheated 180C oven for about 10 minutes. As suggested, we used exactly 11 minutes but this would be highly dependent on your oven.
- When baked, gently remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool for about 1-2 minutes. Use a spoon to gently loosen the edges. Carefully invert the cake onto a serving plate. Serve with plenty of ice cream. <3
Sigh, so sad. This would have looked gorgeous with some berries and ice cream, but we were sadly not very well equipped in props. Had to make do with a couple of cherries, haha. Oh well. Doesn't detract from the overall yumminess. :3
Like I said earlier, this is very highly dependent on the oven you use, so it might take you a few tries to get it right. For the oven we used, I think 11 minutes was a bit too short as the bottom of the cake had not fully baked yet. But no matter. The key to getting this right is to underbake the cake slightly so the middle is all warm and yummy, mmmm! Served with some ice cream, then this is perfection! Particularly on a cold winter's night.
The best thing about this though is that it is soooooo easy! You could totally prepare the batter in advance and just pop it into the oven right before finishing dinner. So good! Am plonking a recommended label on this one. :DDD
One word of caution, I thought this was a bit too sweet. Perhaps it was the chocolate we used, but the next time I make this, will definitely be reducing the amount of sugar. Apart from that, everything is A-ok. Gorge yourselves silly on this lovely lovely cake!
Quote of the day: Any sane person loves chocolate.
Hey, been flooding your tagboard with my baking this one.
ReplyDeleteFirst and second try is the same batch of batter, measured all the ingredients carefully, I used 70% Lindt dark chocolate bar and grinded regular sugar.
First try: underbaked it, the bottom is still not baked, and the impatient me removed it from the ramekin too fast and it literally plopped and broke on the plate, but it's oh so yummy.
Second try: overbaked it, all of the cake was cooked, and it became a nice, soft and light brownie.
Third and fourth try was done using a different batter, I used the same ingredients except for the chocolate (used chocolate chips instead), but since I was in a hurry to prepare it, I didn't bother to measure the sugar, flour and butter and just estimate everything. The butter is a bit less than 100g, while the sugar and flour is probably a bit more than the required amount. I only knew that I used 50g more chocolate.
Anyhow, third try: I got it right, the sides are all baked and the middle is liquidish yummy. I tried it after it considerably cooled though (like a few hours after I took it out of the oven because my mum thought I brought it with me), so the liquid part is not so liquid any longer.
Fourth try: I baked it for around 23 min, and some parts of the cake is still NOT cooked, but since I was running late to go to my mengaji class, as soon as I saw the sides are cooked, took it out of the oven, placed it carefully in a plastic bag, and brought it over to my mengaji class. After the class, my friends all said that it tasted so moist and yummy (and cooked), and reminded them of the one at Cheezbox!
Fifth try (using the same batter in third and fourth try, but the batter was a bit cold due to the fridge): overbaked it, so at first, it feels crunchy outside and dry but chewy inside, I placed it in the fridge for a while, and after being in the fridge, the outside is still crunchy, but the inside is nice, moist and chewy, :).
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I only baked in one medium-sized ramekins for the third, fourth and five attempts, and a bit larger-sized ramekin for the first two tries, hence the reason why I managed to use only two batches of batter for all five tries.
Salam!
ReplyDeleteSixth (actually eighth, but then I don't bother count anymore) try.
I used a proper cake baking tray instead of a ramekin this time around because one of my mengaji friends insists on buying the cake off me (I pointed her towards your blog udah, but ia memajal, so oh well, I'm broke jua, might as well), and I carefully measured the ingredients. It came out thin, very thin in fact but oh so moist, especially after being in the fridge. Mum said its too sweet, though.
Seventh try (err... ninth I should say), again using the proper cake baking tray but this time, I doubled the recipe and baked it for twenty minutes since the portion is doubled. Again it came out to be a chocolate moist cake, but my friend said, 'biarkan tia, as long as its chocolate cake, I'm happy'.
My next try will probably be tripling the recipe and see what happens, and for the chocolate, I managed to get cheap eating dark chocolate (vochelle) ($1.70 for 100g compared to Lindt 70% ($5.15 for 100g) and Cadbury Old Gold ($4.95 for 200g), but I'm not too sure about the cocoa percentage though).
By the way, one of my other mengaji friends used baking chocolate (I'm not sure what brand she used), she measured everything properly, and her cake turned out to be bitter, I guess its due to her baking chocolate, as mine turned out sweet (for me) but too sweet for my mum.
well, of course using a cake tin would be too thin o: This is not really meant to be used with a cake tin. Since you're putting it in the fridge anyway, if you really want, just use the recipe for Melt in your mouth chocolate cake http://f00d-for-thought.blogspot.com/2007/01/melt-in-your-mouth-chocolate-cake.html
ReplyDeleteThat's meant to be used with a cake tin and is super easy to do.
And I wasn't kidding about using the best chocolate you can find. I would not use that Vochelle chocolate, better to use the Lindt one. Would make a huge difference in taste. Not sure what chocolate your friend used, but I know one of the Hershey's baking chocolates is wayyy too bitter since its unsweetened. If worst comes to worst, just use dark chocolate that is meant for eating, at least 70% cocoa solids.
I've used five different brands of chocolate so far (Lindt, Cadbury Old Gold, Cadbury Bournville, Vochelle and another brand that I don't remember that has 80% cocoa solid), some versions are a bit sweeter than another but other than that, there's not really much difference in taste in all five versions. It is easier to work with the more expensive chocolates, though.
ReplyDeleteI only use eating chocolate ever since I noticed that Curtis Stone (the chef in Take Home Chef) & David Rocco (David Rocco's Dolce Vita) never use baking chocolate for any of their chocolate desserts, and that's what I suggested my friend do.
Bh, I'll give the other recipe a try sometime now that I've got a proper cake mixer (been using the blender and food processor for all the earlier versions), and believe it or not, I found it in the storage room!
Apparently, my mum (or dad) got it as a gift at one time, chucked it in the storage room since there's another one currently in use at that time, and promptly forgot all about it until we entered the storage room in search for my brother's cat who just loves that room for reasons unknown to any of us.