Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Bleeding Heart Cakes (well.. sorta)

I try not to bake too often because my husband and I have been known to consume entire loaves of banana bread or whatever I make in the same evening. We definitely have issues with the concept of moderation. Nevertheless, I wanted to bake something as a nod to Valentines Day. I decided to go with the color red as a theme instead of hearts as I'm definitely not a pink hearts kind of girl. I thought it would be pretty neat to make something deep red and oozing, kind of like an actual heart.

Well, I failed at the deep red and the oozing part. The raw batter was a nice shade of red, but turned brown with a hint of red when they were cooked. The cakes were pretty tasty, but this was my first time trying to make a lava cake. After the prescribed amount of time, I unmolded one and it just gushed carnage all over the plate, So then I overcompensated and cooked the rest until the centers were mostly cooked. Ah well. They looked pretty in the ramekins.



Heres' the recipe I concocted, though I'm not sure how succesful it was.

Bleeding Heart Lava Cakes
(adapted from Epicurious)

3 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
3 ounces white chocolate, chopped
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons of buttermilk powder
Red food coloring (a whole lot of it)

4 large egg yolks
4 tablespoons sugar
2 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 425° F. Butter four 3/4-cup custard cups. Dust with flour; shake out excess. Combine chocolate, butter and salt in top of double boiler set over simmering water. Stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from over water. Cool 10 minutes. Sprinkle buttermilk powder and food coloring over mixture and blend in.

Beat egg yolks and 3 tablespoons sugar in large bowl until thick and light, about 2 minutes.




Fold in chocolate mixture. Using electric mixer fitted with clean, dry beaters, beat egg whites and 1 tablespoon sugar in medium bowl until stiff but not dry. Gently fold whites into chocolate mixture in 3 additions. Divide batter among prepared cups.

Place custard cups on baking sheet. Bake until cakes are puffed but still soft in center, about 11 minutes. (mine were undercooked at 11 minutes and overcooked at around 20 minutes) Transfer baking sheet to rack; cool cakes 1 minute.

Using small knife, cut around sides of cakes to loosen. Place plates on top of cups. Invert cakes onto plates; remove cups. Top with whipped cream or ice cream if desired.



In the end, they were pretty tasty, although I think the white chocolate actually took away from the overall chocolaty experience. They also puffed up a lot, and I'm not sure if lava cakes are supposed to do that. Unfortunately, the name no longer applies when they are sitting in the ramekin, no lava flow in sight. But it's such a cool name, I'm keeping it! Maybe I'll try it again some time.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

mmm, they look good regardless! Nice job at being daring enough to try it; I'm sure next time you'll get it just right. If undercooked at 11 minutes but overcooked at 20, shoot for 15. I'm sure that will get it right in the ballpark. :) Nice job!

Suzanne said...

thanks darb! If I do, there may be lava cakes in your future.. And happy Vday!

Mustakrakish said...

Yes, these cakes are supposed to rise like that. I made some for my wife and dusted the top with confectioners sugar. I served it with chocolate cinnamon ice cream on the side. I too am a photo bug, but I only had my cellphone at the time.

Anonymous said...

Could a red velvet cake recipe be adapted?

Suzanne said...

Thanks Angel! And Stonemaven, I thought about using more of a red velvet cake recipe, but I wanted the chocolate to be more pronounced. Definitely something to work on though!