Ladurée Chocolate Cake Recipe
May 22, 2014
Hi everyone! Here's the second instalment of Project Laduréed. This time, I'll be sharing with you the Gateau Moelleux au Chocolat (i.e. Soft Chocolate Cake) recipe from the book.
I was lucky to have two pairs of extra hands in the kitchen to bake this cake. Delphine and Jeff came over to my place to bake, chill, and catch up. Life is goooooood.
Anyway, I chose this recipe as it has one of the shortest preparation time (supposedly 40 minutes, but we spent around an hour) and the cooking time is only 25 minutes. The ingredients and steps also seemed simple and straightforward enough.
However, truth be told, this recipe was more challenging than expected. Perhaps it's all the water baths involved and the multiple mixing bowls needed. Thus, I found myself repeatedly turning to the stove. The steps were also more tedious than I thought they would have been. I guess it's true that things are easier said than done, because they looked way simpler in writing than when executed.
In addition, the heat of Singapore, along with my fire-based stove, turned my kitchen into a hot oven. It's not often that I sweat this much while baking.
Despite that, it's still a simpler recipe as compared to other recipes in the book! It's hard to go wrong with chocolate ;) So if you are looking for a fluffy, soft, and indulgent chocolate cake, give this recipe a shot! P.S. My comments for the recipe are included in the parenthesis!
LADURÉE CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPEby Ladurée
9-inch Round Cake Pan
8 Servings
Ingredients
150g Unsalted Butter + 1.5 Tablespoon of butter for cake pan
35g Cake Flour + 2.5 Tablespoon of cake flour for cake pan
150g Chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids)
1 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Egg + 4 Egg yolks + 7 Egg whites
150g Granulated sugar
Directions:
1. Butter the cake pan and refrigerate for 5 minutes to allow the butter to set. Remove from refrigerator and dust the interior with flour. Turn upside down and lightly tap out any excess flour. Keep in the fridge.
2. Using a knife, chop the chocolate on a cutting board. Place in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water (i.e. prepare a water bath)
3. Add the butter and melt together over very low heat, stirring with a spatula. Remove from heat.
4. Sift together the flour and cocoa powder, and set aside.
5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius, gas mark 4.
6. In a large mixing bowl, placed over a pan of gently simmering water, whisk together the egg, egg yolks and half of the sugar (75g) until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and set aside. (I spent over 10min on this step. My over-cautiousness might have explained why this step was the most time-consuming. I used extremely low heat and thus the eggs and sugar took really long to thicken. I suggest using simmering water to speed up the process!)
7. Immediately whisk the egg whites to a foam in another large clean, dry bowl. (For around 1 minute on low speed). Once they are white and frothy, incorporate the remaining half of sugar (75g), while continuing to whisk for another minute.
8. Delicately fold a third of the egg and sugar mixture into the melted chocolate and butter. Pour the entire mixture back over the remaining 2/3 of the eggs and sugar, mixing gently.
9. Delicately fold a third of the whipped egg whites, along with the sifted flour and cocoa powder, into the above mixture. Pour this new mixture then back over the 2/3 of whipped egg whites. Combine all together until smooth, being careful not to over-mix (I used a folding motion to mix this)
10. Pour batter into the cake pan. Place in oven and lower the temperature to 170 degrees celsius, gas mark 3. Bake for 25 min. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes before removing from the mould. (For some reason, my cake took much longer to cook - around 35 min. I suggest keeping an eye on the cake and checking on it constantly. Use a toothpick to see if it is fully-cooked).
Most certainly, there are few things in life that can excite your tastebuds as much as how a slice of warm chocolate cake with a generous scoop of ice-cream can. YUMS.
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