Chocolate Valentino - Baking Challenge

I'm officially a member of Daring Bakers starting from this month. It's an online community of people who share their passion for baking. Every month, they host a baking challenge, where hundreds of people try the exact recipe and share their result on their own blog all on the same day. Doesn't that sound fun? Here is the challenge of Februrary 2009.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The original recipe uses whipped topping instead of ice cream which was optional for people who wanted more complex challenge. Since I don't own an ice cream maker, I opted out on that one.

It was simply decadent. Because there is no additional sugar in this recipe, the sweeteness only comes from the chocolate which you choose. I actually didn't have enough semi-sweet chocolate on hand, thus ended up using 20-25% dark chocolate, which turned out perfect for my taste.

You can't really mess up this cake as long as your measurements are correct and you remember to remove the cake from the oven when it's done. It consists of three ubiquitous ingredients, so you don't have to make a trip to speciality stores or to plan in ahead of time.

Chocolate Valentino

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.