Orange Kissed Dark Chocolate Cake

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.

Yay! My first post as a Daring Baker. I tweaked the basic recipe to include 1Tb of Grand Marnier and I used Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Chips since that's what I had on hand (and needed to use up before I ate them all!). I made the vanilla ice cream without a machine using the recipe provided by David Lebovitz, which you can find here.

Chocolate Valentino-Orange Kissed
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
1 T. Grand Marnier
5 large eggs separated
Orange Zest for decoration

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, add 1 T. Grand Marnier, beat 30 seconds more.
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.

I used my new mini cheesecake pans to bake the cakes in. Aren't these little 3 inches babies adorable?

Comments

[JennyBakes]

Cute pans! Nice job on this challenge. Your post makes me want to go back and make it again with a touch of grand marnier, that really sounds delicious.

[Amy]

oooh, I really like those mini cheesecake pans. Just imagine what could be made in those! Great job on the challenge, your cake looks delicious.

[Kitty]

Those orange roses really make your chocolate cake pop! This looks delectable!