Chocolate-Espresso Cake

For this week’s challenge, I wanted to make a chocolate cake for Valentine’s Day. It was a challenge for me because I don’t make a lot of desserts and sometimes my baking efforts wind up as miserable failures. I definitely need more practice, but on the other hand, I don’t really need to be eating more sweets. So it’s kind of a double-edged sword.

Anyway, here’s how the cake turned out:

Looks pretty good, doesn’t it? It tasted good too, like an ooey-gooey gigantic brownie.

I chose a recipe from Nigella Lawson‘s Feast for a cake that was almost flourless (only ½ cup) because I really like dense, chocolatey cakes and because I wanted to use some instant espresso powder I already had in the pantry. A good cook always tries to make use of what she already has on hand. However, I did have to go shopping for one thing: a springform pan. That’s right, I’ve gone this long without owning one, and there are plenty of times when I could have used it. So now I’ve got one.

One thing I didn’t have to buy was a double boiler to melt the chocolate. Instead, I placed a small pot on top of a larger one of simmering water. The chocolate melted perfectly. (I don’t have a microwave anymore, which is handy for melting chocolate, I will admit.)

The cake did not rise up as high as the one pictured in Nigella’s book, probably because I didn’t beat the eggs enough at the beginning. I don’t own a stand mixer, and I tend to get tired of beating and quit before I ought to. It didn’t make much difference to the flavor, though, which was dense, chocolatey and a big hit with everyone. I topped it simply, with a dollop of whipped cream to cut the richness. I didn’t pour coffee liqueur over the top, as Nigella does, since one of my tasters is a toddler, but I don’t think its absence detracted from the cake at all.

I’m not going to post the recipe, since I didn’t change it very much and I don’t want to violate copyright. But the wonders of the Internet always provide, so here is the exact recipe from Food Network’s website. Enjoy.

For this week’s challenge, I am doing a brunch dish: an old-fashioned country scramble. I’ll probably also make biscuits, because what’s a country breakfast without biscuits?

Fun Blogs for Foodies

I just have to take a moment to call attention to a couple of my favorite food-related blogs.

First, there’s Cake Wrecks. You’re probably already reading this, but if you’re not, you should be. It’s surprising how entertaining photos of bad cakes can be. Every Sunday there’s a selection of super-sweet cakes to counteract the wrecks.

Then there’s Wine Woot! In case you aren’t familiar with Woot!, it’s a daily deals blog, usually techy or geeky toys. Wine Woot! is the wine equivalent, with a new deal every week. I’ve found some really nice bargains here, but even when I don’t, I always enjoy the wine descriptions and ensuing discussions.