United Cakedom: flourless

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Weekend Baking with Janet!!

I have had my blog nearly a year now and my sister Janet has been a guest post(er) since the beginning. I thought I would start posting her baking adventures every weekend!

When I first started the blog I wanted to keep things ominous at first. I didn’t even have an about page, so I called my sister IN (Indiana) Baker as that is where she lives. However the past few months I have just been referring to her as Janet because that’s her name.

I have listed a few of her posts from the past year that have been either really popular or some of the ones I really liked that I think deserve some attention. Here they are:

My sister sent me this quote a few weeks back on my birthday. I don’t think there are better words to describe us!

She is your mirror, shining back at you with a world of possibilities. She is your witness, who sees you at your worst and best, and loves you anyway. She is your partner in crime, your midnight companion, someone who knows when you are smiling, even in the dark. She is your teacher, your defence attorney, and your personal press agent, even your shrink. Some days, she's the reason you wish you were an only child. ~Barbara Alpert

Flourless Chocolate Lime Cake with margarita cream!!

I made this cake first of all because I've never made a flourless cake. Second, because of the lime, my family LOVES lime. :)
My cake is super dense, which I imagine is what happens when there is no flour, but it makes the cake very dense. There were no complaints at my house!
I made the lime cream to top it based on Nigella's recipe for Margarita cream, minus the alcohol. Not that I don't love alcohol, I just have 4 kids who will be eating this cake. ;) The lime cream is ah-may-zing!! It's so yummy and a must have to balance out the sweetness of the cake.
~ Janet

This recipe is taken from Nigella's website so it is the UK version. I tried to make it American friendly if any questions please leave a comment. It also appears in her book Kitchen.

For the cake:

150g dark chocolate, chopped -Bittersweet Chocolate Ghirardlli's
150g soft unsalted butter, plus some for greasing
6 eggs
250g caster sugar -super fine sugar
100g ground almonds -Almond meal/flour
4 teaspoons best-quality cocoa powder, sifted
zest and juice 1 lime
icing sugar, to dust (optional)
1 x 23cm springform or other round cake tin

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4, line the base of your cake tin with baking parchment and butter the sides.
Melt the chocolate and butter together either in a heatproof bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water, or in a microwave (following manufacturer’s instructions), then set aside to cool slightly.
Beat the eggs and sugar together until about tripled in volume, pale and moussy. I do this using a freestanding mixer, but a hand-held electric model would be just fine too; obviously, by hand is possible but would demand tenacity and muscle.
Mix the ground almonds with the cocoa powder and fold this gently into the egg and sugar mixture, followed by the slightly cooled chocolate and butter. Finally, fold in the zest and juice of your lime.
Pour and scrape this mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 40–45 minutes (though start to check at 35); the cake will be just firm on top, but still have a bit of wobble underneath.
Remove from the oven and sit the cake in its tin on a wire rack to cool. Once the first heat has left it, drape a clean tea towel over the cake to stop it getting too crusty, though a cracked and cratered surface is to be expected; it’s crunch I’m avoiding here.

When cold, unmould, dust with icing sugar if you wish and serve with the jaunty Margarita Cream that follows...

Margarita Cream

60ml lime juice (2-3 limes) or from a squeezy bottle
1x15 ml tablespoon tequila
1x15 ml tablespoon triple sec or Cointreau note above I omitted this and it turned out great!
75g icing sugar -confectioners sugar/powder
250ml double cream -heavy cream

Stir the lime juice, tequila and orange liqueur together in a good-sized bowl, then whisk or fork in the icing sugar and let it dissolve in the sour, strong liquid.
Slowly whisk in the double cream and keep whisking until you have a light, floaty, aerated mixture, then serve with the Chocolate Lime Cake above

For the American version use this in place of the ground almonds.

Almond meal/flour found in health food stores, or in your health food isle at the local grocer.

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies!!

While reading Annabel Karmel’s The Fussy Eater’s Recipe Book (I made the amazing Shepard’s Pie for dinner) I came across the section ‘gluten-free and gorgeous’ and these cookies stood out. I had everything to make them in the cupboard so that is a bonus. I bet you didn’t know I kinda bake a lot…

I didn’t have milk chocolate chips and used dark. Although these were really good I will use milk chocolate chips next time. The dark ones were good, but it needed milky-ness. Ya know? Not to be beaten I got my milky-ness by dunking them in a cold glass of milk. Yum!

I also wanted to note that I used a peanut butter with no added sugar. That would change the sweetness. This book is my family’s favourite, its where I got the recipe for the lasagna in this post. It also has very yummy tuna melt cakes, veggie burgers, and chicken satay. All very good.

Some recipes for gluten-free can be daunting with random ingredients, but these are pretty basic and simple. Oh! and did I mention they taste good!!

Enjoy!!

Mr. Knightly's office ate all of these!

Box of Chocolates Cake!!

The cakes name says it all. It tastes sort of like a box of chocolates! Very heavy and rich, it says it serves 25 big or 36 small portions.

I would probably say the 36, unless you have a real chocoholic! I would also say that only make this cake if you have time! I found that it took me a lot longer then expected. It was super dense and rich so worth the time.

This recipe was adapted from The Birthday Cake Book by Fiona Cairns. There are lots of other fun cakes in this book! Even if I never make another single thing from it, I’m sure I’ll be referring to it again just to read!

Box of Chocolates: Flourless Sachertorte

for the cake

260g unsalted butter, diced, plus more to butter the tin

300g 70% cocoa solids, chocolate, chopped

8 eggs, separated

250g golden caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

340g ground almonds

6 tbsp apricot jam to glaze

Pre-heat the oven to 160*C/325*F/fan 150*C/gas mark 3. Lightly butter a 25cm square tin and line the base with the baking parchment.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water; I always take it off the heat before all the lumps are melted. Then stir it until completely melted. It’s just how I do it! Set aside to cool.

melted chocolate and butter

Now you need to separate your 8 eggs. This can be a tricky part. I use 3 bowls for this. You’re going to mix the eggs yolks in your mixer (if using a free standing mixer). I use my hands to separate eggs. I brake an egg over a bowl put the yolk in a second bowl and then pour the egg white into a separate third bowl. I do this with all 8 eggs. As you can see in the picture provided that the tiniest bit of yoke in the whites could ruin the egg whites when beating. (Also see my sister’s frosting that didn’t work out due to a tiny bit of yolk.) If I had broke 7 eggs in a bowl and then with my 8^th egg got any yoke in it I would have had to start over and would have been eating a very big omelet for dinner! Also you want to make sure the egg white bowl is grease free!

un-usable egg whites

egg yolks, I just thought they were pretty

egg whites, stiff peaks (sort of)

Now on with the cake! Add the sugar and vanilla to the egg yolks and whisk until the mixture is thickened and creamy (the 'ribbon’ stage). This can take 3-4 minutes.

Slow your mixer (hand or free standing) to low and add the cooled melted butter/chocolate mixture. Then in your egg white bowl whisk them with the pinch of salt to stiff peaks. With a metal spoon, fold the almonds into the chocolate mixture. Then big-spoonful by big-spoonful fold in the egg whites! This takes arms of steal! I managed, but was close to calling in the hubby!!

Pour into your prepared cake tin and bake for 45-50 or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave in tin to cool for a couple of minutes before turning it out on to a wire rack. Here’s were I splurged a little and bought a 25cm square tin, but didn’t get a 25cm square thin cake board. That was a mistake if I was going to go all out I should have gone all the way! I made it work with what I had, but was in fear that the cake was going to crumble in two!!

apricot glaze

Don’t forget about that apricot jam!! Heat it up in a small pan and press through a sieve. Glaze the cake by spreading it all over while cake and jam are still warm!

for the chocolate ganache:

300g 70% cocoa solids, chocolate broken into pieces

270ml double (heavy) cream

60g unsalted butter

Turn the cake unto your thin cake board, if you don’t have one do like I did and leave it on the cake tin insert. Make sure you have plenty of paper/towels underneath to catch the drips!

the mess!

covered in ganche waiting to dry

Do as you did before and put the chocolate, cream, and butter in a bowl over simmering water until it’s melted. Stir until melted; cool a little to thicken before pouring over the cake. Allow the cake to cool for at least 2 hours. Then decorate! I bought a small box of Thornton’s Dark Chocolate Trifles to decorate this cake with!