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Bonjour!

Welcome to this website where my French accent, Lebanese blood and Mediterranean appetite guide a bubbly kitchen in the heart of Miami, Florida.

Chocolate Cake and Pixie Dust

Chocolate Cake and Pixie Dust

This is a very very very good Chocolate Cake recipe. My favorite chocolate cake so far. It’s not pretentious nor complicated to make. I have been baking it since 2005. It is technically one of the first recipes I ever made. Simple, requires few ingredients, moist, not too sweet but indulgent enough to make you crave it every day.

You can “finish” the cake with red berries, a light powdered sugar dust, some cocoa powder magic, with a silky chocolate ganache and homemade croquant or as I call it “Edible Pixie Dust”.

Trust me. Trust my friends. Trust all our guests who had this cake for dessert. Now go bake one!

 

Chocolate Cake


Ingredients
300 gr (11 oz / 2 cups) bittersweet chocolate
250 gr (9 oz) unsalted butter
5 eggs, yolks and whites separated
55 gr (¼ cup) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
90 gr (½ cup) self-rising flour, sifted
¼ teaspoon salt

Directions
You will need a round cake pan (9 inch or 10 inch diameter), one small saucepan, the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, one big bowl, a whisk and a silicone spatula.

Scale and prep all the ingredients.
Heat the oven to 270 F (130 C).
Butter and flour the cake pan.

In a small saucepan, over medium-low heat, melt the chocolate and butter stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat as soon as the ingredients are all melted and homogeneously incorporated. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla extract. Beat on medium speed until the mixture thickens and its color becomes lighter. While the mixer in on low speed, pour the melted chocolate-butter over the egg yolks and sugar and mix until blended.
Remove the bowl from the mixer stand. Add the flour and salt and mix gently with a silicone spatula until just combined.
In another big bowl, whip the egg whites until soft peeks form.
Using a spatula, slowly incorporate the whipped egg whites to the cake batter. Do not over mix.
Pour the batter in the cake pan and bake in the hot oven for 70 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack. The cake needs to be at room temperature before decorating it…

 

Chocolate Ganache for “Cake Final Touch”


Ingredients
150 g (1 cup) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
⅓ cup heavy whipping cream
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter at room temperature

Directions
Put the chopped chocolate and heavy cream in a small sauce pan. Let the heat through over medium-low heat. Once the chocolate has melted, remove from the stove top and set aside. Allow the mixture to cool down… you can mix from time to time.

 

Croquant / Edible Pixie Dust


Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar
¾ cup chopped almonds, lightly toasted (you can substitute with hazelnut, pecan, cashew, pine nuts etc…)

Directions
You will need one small frying pan, a silicone spatula and a baking sheet lined with silicone pad.

Put the granulated sugar in a small frying pan, and let it melt slowly over medium heat. Do no mix... When the sugar is completely melted with a nice golden color, add the chopped almonds, quickly mix to combine and pour the content on the silicone pad. Try to flatten it as much as possible and let it set and cool down completely.
Brake into pieces for decoration or grind them for a sparkling crunchy nutty addition to your desserts…
You can also pulverize it in a food processor and sprinkle your homemade pixie dust around the cake or on top of anything you can think of! 

 
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